Wars of the Titans
by Shattered Shields
Summary: After Paris, the world thought it was all over. That the fat lady had sung. But the Titans had too many enemies that were too strong. They've had their blood spilt in the years after Paris, their troubles haven't ceased. When most of the villains slip away from the ice in a breakout, the Titans find themselves in a war with few friends, and a growing list of enemies.
1. Warbreak

**Well, this is old as dirt. I first got the concept of this years ago. I didn't think I would ever put this on paper. But, well, it made it.**

 **First and foremost, I must warn you. People die in this one, a lot. I will tell you right off the bat, there's six Titans dead already, not counting Terra (who was the only Titan that died in the show at all). And more will fall. So, if you don't want that, turn around now. Second and secondmost, there's a lot of crap happening in this one as well, and I'll try to explain it all one step at a time, so please be patient. Thirdly, I drew from the comics in volume. So Robin turns into Nightwing, Speedy into Arsenal, and some characters come from DC. With all that said, enjoy, call me out on any mistakes!**

 **Beast Boy, Brotherhood Base, Paris**

Garfield trotted past the icy statues, his nose to their heels. He couldn't smell nor sense any hint of life or activity. He passed the former villains with memories slipping through his head. He remembered Cyborg taking down Atlas with a flying tackle, Jinx defeating her former gang with a snap of her fingers, and Raven putting Plasmus back to sleep with well casted magic.

She was behind him now, hand buzzing with power as she casted some sort of spell over the frozen villains.

They were here to investigate the fact that nearly half of the villains interred in the ice had suddenly vanished, sending off alarms in Titans Tower. The likes of Madam Rouge, the gorilla Mallah, and even Control Freak had been released.

"Found anything?" He asked, shifting back into his human form.

"Nothing. Smell anything?" She replied, looking over her shoulder at him.

Beast shrugged. "Other than rat crap, not a thing. You think these guys are dead?"

"I don't know. The ice might have killed them." Raven said, passing her hand over Adonis. "I'm not finding any brain waves, or hints of life."

He smirked. "Look who you're scanning. Not much brainpower to begin with."

Rae fought the smile hard, but it broke through. She turned away from Gar and moved on to Atlas. "Well, _none_ of them have brain activity. Not even Psimon, and he was a scientist before he was a villain."

Beast Boy went silent for a second, peering at her. Raven had told them all of Psimon after all the Brotherhood business. He was a scientist who had served Trigon before Slade did. Rae had faced off with Psimon before she had even joined the team, thrashing the psionic menace.

"Psimon's an idiot." He scoffed. "Who wants their brain in a jar?"

"He wasn't stupid." Raven murmured. "Just desperate."

"Rae." Beast stepped up to stand beside her. "Come on. Don't get maudlin, all that's behind you."

"I wish it was." Raven muttered, shaking her head. "Trigon won't give up."

"And we aren't giving up either." Beast Boy countered, daring to put a hand on her shoulder. "If he comes back, we'll kick his ass again."

"It keeps getting worse, after Iceland, I'm not sure-"

"Iceland wasn't your fault." Gar interrupted. "You know it wasn't. None of Old Titans North blames you. The Herald doesn't, Static doesn't, Mechmana too."

Raven said nothing for a moment. "He just keeps taking things away." Her voice was edged with anger. "First Azarath, then Titans North, what's next?"

"Titans North still lives Rae, because of you." BB reminded her. "You were the one that curb stomped him."

"The price is too high." Raven muttered, her now-long hair slipping out of her cowl.

"Rae, come on." He said. "Enough of the bad. Focus on the good for a change."

She gave him a look he couldn't decipher, and continued walking along the icy statues, few as they were.

Beast Boy trotted to keep up with her. She spoke again when he was at her elbow. "What I want to know, is why the Brain is still here, and Mallah is gone."

"That is weird." Gar admitted. "The monkey would never leave the Brain behind. I think they had a thing."

They stopped in front of the Brain, and Raven passed a hand over him. "No activity. I think he might be dead."

"Looks like literal brain freeze."

Raven stepped closer and peered at the frozen case. "You're right, for once, all the fluid in there is completely frozen."

" _For once_?" Beast Boy protested. "Oh come on, I'm right most of the time."

"Like when you thought Robin was controlled by zombie mind control?" Rae replied, grinning slightly. "Or when you suggested an army of hamsters?"

"Flukes, Rae, flukes. I can't be right all the time." Beast Boy said, smiling cockily at her.

Raven rolled her eyes and walked down the line again, scanning each of the statues with magic again. "I think they're all dead." She said seriously.

"That explains why they weren't taken." He asserted. "Corpses wouldn't help the Brotherhood."

"It could've been any of our enemies. We have too many of those." Raven reminded him.

Beast Boy grunted. "Yeah, list is way too long." He suddenly grinned, and grabbed his canteen. "Hey Rae, why does Snoop Dogg always carry an umbrella?"

There was a long sigh. "Do I want to know?"

"Fo'drizzle." Gar quipped, splashing a bit of water on her head, then ducking as she tried to hit him on the back of the head.

"I'll get you for that Garfield!" She exclaimed as he slipped away as a moth.

"Sure you will." He taunted, reappearing on a ledge above her head.

"You need me to get home." Raven frowned up at him. "You going to fly all the way back to the Tower?"

"I'll give the Herald a ring. The guy's always looking for something to do." He replied, jumping to another ledge as the one he stood on collapsed.

"What if he's in a meeting?" Raven countered, pulling down the stone Beast Boy stood on.

He went hawk, and flew to a horizontal steel beam. "He only has those on Saturdays."

"And when have you started learning his schedule?" She asked. "I didn't know you two were together."

"Har har." Beast Boy wobbled as a tendril of magic tugged at his foot. "Are you trying to murder me for a reason?"

"Other than the usual cause." She wrapped a loop about his ankle, but he escaped again, taking wing as a pigeon.

By that, she meant him being annoying, which Beast Boy took special pride in. "Oh come on Rae, you know I'm funny."

Raven _huffed_. She rose off her feet, coming towards him. "Stand still, I want to deliver the punch line."

"Uh huh. Not impressed." Beast laughed. "The beginning to that was terrible."

Raven took a swipe at him, and Gar batted her hand away, losing his balance and falling in the process. He slammed to the ground on all four paws, and went back to human form, grinning up at Rae. "And the ending was pretty bad too."

Raven touched the ground again, and turned again to the statues. "You're an ass." But her voice was warm, or at least as warm as Raven's voice ever got.

"Don't be like that." Beast Boy took the joke in stride. "You want me to cheer you up?"

"Please don't." Rae groaned.

"What did the fisherman say to the card magician?"

"Don't."

"Cod, pick any cod!"

Raven shook her head, completely exasperated. "You're flying home. I'm done."

Gar walked to her side. "Oh come on, my arms would be sore for days!"

"Don't care, you need the exercise anyways."

"I do not." He protested. "You've seen how much I lift."

"You've missed too many leg da-" Raven suddenly flinched and looked over her shoulder, eyes wide and pure white.

"What's up?" He went to her side instantly.

"We're not alone." Raven whispered, eyes still aglow. "At least ten men, no, twenty."

"Where?" Gar said quietly. "On the main floor?"

Raven nodded, the main floor was right behind them, through a thin wooden wall that some hobo had set up years ago. "Coming from underground outlets. Thirty, now forty, and a gorilla."

 _Mallah_. He knelt to a hole in the plywood, and Raven sank with him, ducking down so she wasn't seen. He peered through into the courtyard, and immediately saw, despite the darkness of dusk, several groups of soldiers roaming around the base. They were searching, Beast Boy watched as they methodically furrowed through every corner they came across. He could also pick Mallah out of the gloom directing the soldiers. Above him, there was a woman in a green and black supersuit, floating in midair.

"Fifty-seven." Raven's eyes went back to normal.

"Don't forget Mallah, or that meta." Beast Boy whispered.

"I didn't. Call a Mayday." Raven breathed. "We're badly outnumbered."

Maydays were their name for the emergency signals their communicators could fire off. "Shouldn't we just scram? And come back later with the rest of the team?" He proposed.

"They could leave while we do that." Raven replied. "And we would miss out on a chance to capture Mallah."

"Right." He plucked his comm off his belt and pressed the button on the side. It buzzed twice at him. "Signal se- _agh_!"

Ferocious pain suddenly burst in his skull, and he collapsed to the floor. His vision swam, then blacked, not allowing him to see the worry on Raven's face as she crouched over him.

Then scenes played out in his head, mental pictures of the Doom Patrol, the Titans, Raven, all people he cared for. Then there was suddenly conflict, a crisis, and he watched helplessly as every Patroller and Titan died. Necks snapped, shootings, villains throwing them in barbed cages, they all fell, one by one, until it came to his family, Rob, Star, Cy, Rae, all hitting the ground with their lives extinguished.

 _No, no, no. This can't-. This isn't real. Not Rae._ The agony was horrible. The fear choked him. He couldn't breathe.

But then came release, Raven's voice came through. "Gar, come on! Wake up, I need you!"

He could see again. Raven was beside him on one knee, arms outstretched to maintain a barrier between them and the cascade of laser fire. The meta was floating right outside their dark bubble, staring at Raven unnervingly.

"It was that _bitch_. She pointed in our direction and you collapsed." She shook. "I can't hold the barrier so thick for much longer."

"Then don't, keep it thin enough to stop the bullets. I'll worry about anyone getting into the bubble." He morphed into bigfoot in time to club a soldier that burst through the bubble, blade held high.

Raven drew the barrier in tighter around them. "We need to move. Walk back with me?"

Beast Boy grunted in assent, and they began edging their way back, the meta followed, floating silently outside their little fortress. Two more soldiers leaped upwards onto the platform, and Gar lashed at them both, sending them flying.

The meta came to the very edge of the barrier, and he lunged at her, grazing the woman with his claws. She flinched and drew back. Then there was a roar, and Mallah slammed onto the platform, frothing at the mouth. Beast Boy stood his ground as a bull, then a gorilla himself, blocking Mallah's wild punches.

But they drove him back all the same, and he couldn't block the soldiers rushing at them. Snarling, Gar snapped out an uppercut, catching Mallah on the chin, knocking him back. Then he went Rex, sweeping left and right with his tail, knocking away the soldiers, sending them flying over the edge.

But his head was outside of Raven's protection, and he could feel the meta's power, a buzz in his ears. Fear rose unbidden like a venomous snake. He shrank back down to a grizzly, in time to claw Mallah across the chest and hold him in check. The gorilla then suddenly grabbed Gar by the scruff, and hurled him out of the bubble.

Gar switched again in midair, flying back into the sphere, then wrapping himself around Mallah's neck. The gorilla roared and reeled backward.

There was a shout, and black energy ripped through the air. More soldiers went flying, and a massive chunk of rock went flying at the floating meta, who reeled backwards, and extended a hand towards Raven.

Beast Boy struggled out of the death grip Mallah had on him, and lunged for the floating woman again. He didn't want Raven to be struck with the same thing he was.

But Raven seemed to be just fine, and the double attack forced the meta to fall back. Rae cast up the shield again, and a thread of magic yanked Gar behind it.

Then a rift opened up in the middle of the chamber, the sound of the Herald's horn rang through the room, and four figures dropped through the doorway.

"Fall back! Retreat!" Mallah shouted as he leaped off the platform.

"Wounded?" Rae asked, as Beast Boy landed on the black disc she was projecting.

"I'm good. Let's go get the gorilla." The meta was nowhere to be seen.

However, as they soared over Mallah, ready to pounce, sudden mist rolled in out of nowhere. Beast Boy could tell this wasn't natural mist. It was too consistent, and aggressive. Soon, visibility would be zero.

Throwing caution to the winds, he leapt from Raven's saucer and downward onto the fleeing gorilla. He slammed down on the floor behind him, and leapt forward, only to be cold cocked right on the jaw.

 _Ow, dammit. The hell was that?_ Gar couldn't even see just what had hit him. He morphed into a cougar in time to sense something scampering off into the mist.

Raven landed behind him, her cowl down. "What hit you?"

"I don't know." He replied, looking round him. "Who came to our rescue?"

"The rest of our team." She said simply. "Lucky for us they were all in the Tower." She flicked her hand, and a squad of soldiers was nailed by debris.

Beast Boy grunted, and turned into a bloodhound, putting his nose to the ground. "I can't get his scent. Mallah's gone." He morphed back. "Dammit."

"We'll get another chance." She stepped close to him. "Are you okay? What did Phobia do to you?"

"Phobia?" Gar asked. "And I'm fine. Just got a bit of a headache."

"That's her name. I learned it when she tried to psyche me." She narrowed her eyes, and placed two fingers on Gar's forehead. "You don't feel fine."

His head cleared, the slight pain ceased. "Don't worry about me. What about you?"

"Stop changing the subject." Rae kept her fingers on him. "What did she do to you?"

He batted her hand away. "Nothing, just some pain."

Raven went to check him again, but shouts came from the mist.

"Beast Boy, Raven?" Cyborg.

"Yo, Cy, we're over here!" Gar called back.

Like ghosts, Nightwing, Starfire, Cyborg, and the Herald all emerged from the mist, which was rapidly starting to clear.

"What happened?" Nightwing asked. "Was it the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah. We were just inspecting the statues and then boom, soldiers everywhere." Beast Boy said.

"Where did they emerge from?" Star asked, looking around.

"From underground." Raven shook her head. "They came out of nowhere. And they vanished just as fast."

Nightwing did a 360, inspecting the walls. "Cyborg, you think you could do a high res scan of this place?"

Cyborg nodded. "Got it." He popped off an arm, and proceeded to tinker with it.

"Either of you hurt?" Nightwing asked.

Raven glared at Gar. "Well, that meta did a number on Beast Boy-"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not." She tried to do the two fingers thing again.

"Forget it." BB batted her hands away again. "It was just some pain."

"No it wasn't." Raven growled. "She tried to get in my head. And I know she got into yours!"

Nightwing's eyes widened behind the mask. "Beast Boy, let Raven check you out, it'll help."

Not in his case. He had some feelings up there he'd rather Rae didn't know about for now. "I'm fine, seriously. I'm not being mind controlled or anything."

" _That's_ not what I'm worried about." Raven said. "She could've done damage. Stop moving."

"By pointing at me? Come on Raven, and stop trying to poke at me!" He seized her wrist gently, and suddenly became aware of how close they were. They were nearly nose-to-nose. Starfire snickered.

Raven refused to relent. "It's just a check up, stop being a wimp."

"Beast Boy, let her do it." Nightwing ordered. "We need to make sure you're good."

"I am _fine_." Gar replied, a bit irritably. "She just showed me- pictures."

"Pictures?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow.

"You're lying. It was more than that." Rae tried to touch his head again. "Her name was _Phobia_ , what did she do?"

"Beast Boy?" Nightwing asked. "Did she show you something bad?"

Rob was always the perceptive one. "Yeah. She showed me a hamburger and I died of fright. I'm good Robin, don't worry."

Both Nightwing and Raven frowned at him, but then came Cyborg's shout. "I found something!"


	2. Ruminations

**Back again. This chapter really got away from me, I'd originally planned to put more in it, but I didn't want to bore with a long chapter. Anyways, enjoy!**

 **Jinx, East Africa**

"That's a lot of guns." Flash murmured.

"No kidding." Jinx replied, adjusting her hood better so it covered her hair. "You sure about this?"

"Course I am." He smirked. "You seem to forget that I could outrun a bullet."

"And could you dodge a thousand of them at once?" Jinx hissed. "We need to wait for our chance."

"Yeah yeah." He muttered. "We could just nab a sentry."

"We need to grab a guy who wouldn't be missed." She insisted. "That way we don't give away the fact that we're here."

"You scare me sometimes." He muttered.

"Good. Let's circle round, see if we see a soft spot."

"How can you say that without any flukes?"

"Because I don't talk fast like you do."

He put an arm round her shoulders. "Fair enough." Then he took off, carrying her for the ride. Flash shielded her the best he could, and she threw up a bit of magic, so that Jinx avoided the whiplash.

After relocating, Jinx raised her binoculars to her eyes again, and grinned evilly. "Got one. Lone guy looks low ranking. They probably assume he'd deserted if we nab him."

"Got it." He muttered, he zipped forward, and got the soldier right on the chin, knocking him unconscious, then zipped back. "Let's go."

They took off again till they were at their temporary camp, and then came screeching to a halt.

After catching her breath, she toed the unconscious man lying in the dust near her, "So what are we doing with this rat?"

"I'll be taking him to Mogadishu once I get a bit more to eat. The Titans have a hideout there that they keep up."

"That's probably for the best, I still feel a bit nervous around the cops."

Flash gave her an understanding look. "You should call the Titans, tell them we snagged one of these guys and that we're sending him to Mogadishes."

Jinx nodded, "I'll go fishing while you're gone."

Flash grinned, "Where's your net?"

She smiled back at him. "Right here." Purple light sparked over her fingertips.

The man stirred weakly on the sand, and Jinx ensured that he stayed unconscious by blasting him with another wave of magic.

"Careful, he'll be too conked to give information if you keep on hitting him like that," Flash advised, but he didn't look at all sympathetic.

The unconscious fellow was a scout for the PEF. The Paranormal Elimination Front; which could only be described as a terrorist cell with a hard-on for killing heroes, aliens, and villains alike. They were firebrands, murderers, and liars of the worst degree. They were fanatical, and were determined to "protect" humanity and it's extrasolar interests. By protect, they meant killing alien dignitaries, bombing known superhero lairs, and trying to take down every single "para" they found.

Thankfully, the organization was still small, and most people dismissed it as a horde of loons.

They were crazy for sure, but also very dangerous. They had first declared themselves by striking Superman with a crossbow bolt made out of Kryptonite, nearly killing The Man of Steel.

Less than a week later, they had taken a shot at Beast Boy while he was tracking a dangerous fugitive in Vancouver, and then gone after Titans East in Steel City, reducing their tower into rubble with a large bomb they had planted at the base of the structure. Mas y Menos were both killed, and the rest of the team was badly wounded.

Bane, somehow, had been slain by one of the PEF's top assassins in Gotham, and the current Robin had narrowly escaped a similar fate when he investigated the villain's death. Batman soon took down the kill squad the PEF had sent to his city.

Argent had also been at risk when the cell had gone after her in her native New Zealand. She had been there to visit friends. She avoided her demise because of a timely rescue from Red Star, who had visited from the cosmos when he had heard of what had been happening.

The last ones to be attacked were Flash and herself. She remembered the event vividly. They had been tracking a pirate lord in Cape Town when two VTOLs had deposited troops all around them.

Jinx had sensed the danger just in time for Flash to create a massive twister. She had used the cover to strike unimpeded with her magic, and the Fastest Man Alive took down the few she missed. The entire encounter had barely lasted fifteen seconds, and it was a dangerous sign that the PEF's power was increasing. If they had the resources to drop that many troops, then they had new power.

Which was precisely why they were out here in the first place; the Runners had reported a rash of activity in the eastern portion of Somalia, and since Flash and herself were closest, they had been sent to investigate.

What they had just found was a small facility crawling with mercenaries who could not be identified, at least not from a distance. But Wally would sort that out soon.

"Alright then, time for me to take this guy for a ride," Flash exclaimed as he laid hold of the man's collar, and then vanished in a streak of yellow and red.

Jinx flipped her communicator open and punched in a number. There was static at first, but then Cyborg's deep voice rang through.

"Titans Central, what do you need?"

"It's Jinx, we've managed to track down the base in East Africa and capture an operative. Flash is taking him to Mogadishu."

"Nice work, I knew you two could handle it. I'll get someone there-." There was more static. Were those gunshots? "-maybe Wonder Girl and her lasso. We're bu-"

"Are you being shot at?" Jinx asked.

"Might be." Cyborg grunted. She heard his cannon fire. "Get to the safe house in Mogadishu as soon as you can."

"Flash just left." Jinx shrugged. "But he'll be back soon."

"Be careful." Cy ordered. "It's dangerous out there." Then there was a crap ton of static, and the call went dead.

Worry gnawed at her, but she dismissed it. What could topple the original Titans?

Jinx closed the communicator. She rose and moved over the sun-baked sand to the water's edge. Her hand rose and magic fired forward into the Indian Ocean. Four fish tumbled into the surf, already dead. Jinx wrapped them all up in foil and carried them back into the little camp Flash had set up. It consisted of one tent, some shade, and a small campfire. Of course, the only reason she hadn't helped was because her boyfriend had set it all up before she could blink.

He was too good to her. She still remembered that first rose he had given her outside the museum when she was still with the Hive. Flash, well, he had been Kid Flash then, had eventually convinced her to ditch the old team. They had then wandered while Jinx tried her hand at being a hero instead of a villain. It didn't impress her, but it was better to hear cheering rather than screams.

She had changed, but not by much. Jinx was still bad luck, but for the bad guys. Her powers hadn't changed much either, except for their increasing strength.

Flash had grown up more than changed, so much so that he had ditched the "Kid" portion of his name, for the most part. He was faster, stronger, and possessed more stamina than he had had before. His shoulders were broader, and he had much more muscle packed on his fit form.

Jinx settled onto a log, and extended her hand. She felt the power flow from the Earth and through her limbs as it fileted the fish neatly. Then, she set more logs on the fire and set the fish on an old grate above the fire.

Now, she could relax.

 **Aqualad, Porto, Portugal**

Bumblebee was downstairs, in the common room of the Tower, doing whatever on the computer. He stood on the roof, leaning on the rail. The wind off the Atlantic stirred his hair. This wasn't the side of the Atlantic he was used to. Aqualad had became accustomed to the east coast of the US, so moving all the way to Porta was jarring to say the least.

He had no real choice though. The Titans had gone global in the years since Paris. Nightwing and the other leaders had planned this even before Paris. This meant three new teams in the form of Titans South, West, and North. The original team was renamed Titans Central.

The motion had been underway for about a year. Towers had already been built in Japan, Sydney, and Iceland. Teams were put together, and leaders were chosen.

It had been going smoothly, until the pefs showed up and started causing mayhem.

They were due to honor Mas y Menos in a week's time. It would be two years since the day the PEF laid the bomb at the foot of Old Titans East Tower. Aqualad missed the old building a bit, but missed the deceased twins more.

Aqualad heard footsteps behind him as Quickdraw ambled up and leaned on the rail.

"Morning Ock." He said in the middle of a yawn. Mike was only tired when he hadn't had his coffee.

Quickdraw had called him Ock since he'd met him, and the rest of the teen had taken to it. "Morning Mike. " He replied, continuing to look over the city.

"Why are you up so early?" Quickdraw asked. "No criminal would even think of robbing anything at this time of day."

"Couldn't sleep. I guess I was a bit too restless."

"Bad dream huh?"

"No, just thinking."

"Ah." Mike grunted. "Yeah, I know, the day is a week away."

Aqualad looked at him in surprise. Quickdraw had been recruited by Beast Boy in Seattle half a year ago. He hadn't been in Steel City. "Yeah, it is."

"If it's any comfort, I'm bummed I never met them." He offered.

Aqualad looked at him. "Thanks." There was no sarcasm in his voice.

"Kole sent me a ring from Stockholm, said they don't need that tool pack anymore, so I took it off the list." Quickdraw grinned. "They might finally finish their tower."

Titans North had been reformed in Stockholm after the crisis in Iceland; three new heroes had joined the only two willing to reform the team, Static and Mechmana. The leader, Herald, had retreated to his alternate dimension, full of grief and self blame, and somehow turned into a junkie, turning to drugs to soften his pain. Arsenal had only recently been able to coax him out, and got him to go clean as well. Herald now resided in Japan with Titans West, but he went nearly everywhere as well, he was essential to the Mayday system.

"That tower is long overdue." Aqualad said. "After all they've been through, they deserve it."

"Yeah. After Iceland, I'd say so." Quickdraw turned to him. "Ock, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What happened in Iceland, you know, Reykjavik?"

Aqualad hesitated. He'd been privy to the full story. BB had told him. "How much do you know already?"

"Not much. I heard the whole thing got started when, _something_ , got into their tower, and possessed one of them, or the machinery, something like that." Quickdraw shifted uncomfortably. "Then two metahumans showed up to the tower with that Rancid asshole, and started blowing up the tower. They also brought an army of animals or demons or something to back them up." He paused.

"Go on."

"Then a bunch of mercenaries show up, and start fighting both sides. Someone shoots off a message, Raven teleports Central over there, and Liang does the same for Titans West. There's fighting for about an hour, Rancid dies, Raven does something weird in the tower, like she was doing really strong magic, and then flies out. Everyone was almost out of the tower, Herald was just about to go back to get the other half of Titans North, and then the Tower just explodes, splits into three pieces. Three good souls lost." Quickdraw took a breath.

"More or less, that's what happened." Aqualad sighed. "Three Titans lost, and for nothing."

"Is there more to it?"

"Yeah, but you don't want to know Mike. I still have nightmares."

"It can't be that bad."

"It's bad." Aqualad said firmly. "And besides, most of it I promised not talk about."

"Alright, you want to get breakfast in the city?"

Before he could answer, the door to the roof opened again, and Mayley stepped through it blearily. "Don't you people sleep?" She asked, stumbling to the rail.

"Course you showed up right as I mention food." Mike smirked.

"Were you guys going to breakfast?" Mayley asked, her long, pointed ears perking up. "Count me in."

Between their metabolisms, Aqualad swore they came close to eating everything in the fridge in a day. "How are you guys always hungry?"

"My powers." Mike shrugged. "I gotta eat, or I'll collapse."

"I literally have the stomach of a beast." She smirked. "But not one bit of fat."

"I can control the ocean, and heir to all the water on earth. I don't eat any more than you guys do." Aqualad shrugged. "Maybe you guys should seek medical help."

"Dude, I can project raw force into a laser I shoot out my hand, and I gotta fire it off every couple of hours or literally explode. That consumes a lot more energy than splish splashing."

"And I'm literally a _beast_." Mayley piped up.

Aqualad grinned; he could always rely on his younger teammates to make him smile. "Splish splash Mike? You wanna go test that?"

"Sure." Quickdraw grinned back.

Mayley added. "There's a puddle over there Ock."

Mike snorted and starting laughing, and the other two followed suit. Mayley was the last to stop laughing, her blue hair bouncing. She was the oddest of them all, to say the least, everything about her was blue, and naturally so. Blue skin, blue hair, and elongated, pointed ears. She looked so similar to Beast Boy in every respect but the fangs. You would think they were siblings, but they weren't. They had just been produced under the same experiment. Except Marley could only turn into the same Beast that BB could, albeit a smaller variant.

They had found her in London, on their first mission out of Porto, himself, Bumblebee, and Kilowatt had been chasing a lead on Brother Blood, when Blood Cultists ambushed them in an alley. Marley had leapt to their defense. She had been a poor, freelance hero in the London slums, eating at soup kitchens. She had jumped at the opportunity to get out of London.

"Seriously though. Can we eat? I'm starving." Mayley asked. They agreed, and went back downstairs. Kilowatt was working on circuitry for their main screen, and Bee was fixing a panel. They told Aqualad and co to go on without them.

They jumped into the car, Quickdraw driving, and went into town, stopping at a local restaurant they had been to before. Marley and Mike both ate platters, he didn't eat much, and soon Bee and Watt had joined them.

They were just paying their bill when all their coms buzzed fanatically. Bee plucked hers off the table, and flipped it open. "Trouble." She said.

They left a good tip, and hurried out the door.

 **Final note: Quickdraw and Mayley are OCs, Mechmana too. Static is from DC.**


	3. The Long Wind

**I must admit, I really am enjoying writing this. Never thought writing with superheroes would be so much fun. Enjoy the latest! If there's not enough action for you right now, don't worry, it's going to heat up fast.**

 **Nightwing, Titans Tower**

They had found nothing but an ambush in the tunnels, and an eventual dead end. No sign of Mallah or Phobia.

He sat next to Cyborg with a controller in his hand, casually directing his avatar on his side of the screen. His wife sat on his other side, her head in his lap. Raven and BB were busy on dishes.

Dick bit back a curse as his player died, not wanting to wake Star dozing on his lap. Cy grinned as his avatar struck gold, and proceeded to mine it all.

Much had changed in Titans Tower, but much had not. He was taller, BB had gotten both taller and buffer, he and Starfire had been married, but what else had changed, really?

They still called him Robin, they still ate pizza, they were all still the closest friends one could get, and they still thrashed villains on the daily. Nightwing looked back at the kitchen to make sure Raven and Gar weren't trying to kill each other. She had been trying to give him a mental check up for hours now. He always refuted her.

Nightwing was worried. They still had no idea what Phobia had shown Beast Boy, or what damage she might have done. And why was he refusing Raven so vehemently? Normally, he would've have yielded.

But as he watched, Raven stepped close to BB and said something, her expression clouded by her cowl. His face softened, he sighed, and he bowed his head towards her. Raven placed two fingers on his forehead, and closed her eyes. Nightwing elbowed Cy, and they both watched curiously.

After nearly half a minute, BB gently grabbed Raven's hand, and pushed it away from his forehead, face impassive. Hers was the same, but they simply stood there for a few moments, at least till they realized that the rest of the team was staring at them. Even Star had awoken, and was now grinning at Raven.

"Is B alright?" Cy asked casually, breaking the thick silence.

"He's fine." Raven said quickly, a touch of red was entering her face. She shook her hand out of BB's grip.

"Good." Nightwing said, and he turned back round. Star gave Raven a suggestive wink, and Cy just returned to the game.

Beast Boy and Raven both cleared their throats and returned to the dishes.

"I believe they are- how do you say it- talking?" Starfire grinned, leaning her head on Nightwing's shoulder.

"I don't know Star." He threw a glance over to the kitchen again. BB was idly tossing dishes up in the air as Raven caught them with her magic, and slipped them into the drawers. "Those two? I'm not sure."

They still argued and irritated the other as much as they did before, and it was softer now, more playful. But actual romance? He'd have to see it to believe it.

"I think they are." Starfire replied. "Just look at them."

"What do you mean? They look the same as they always have." Nightwing said. On the screen, his avatar died yet again.

"They spend much more time together." Star said. "And they're kinder. Would Raven have tried so hard to heal Beast Boy years ago?"

"Well." Now he did twist again to give the two another look, in time to see Beast give Raven a playful push as he walked by her. She retaliated by flicking him on the ear with her magic, which hardly made BB flinch. "You really think so Star?"

"Hey guys, want to catch a flick?" Garfield called from the other end of the room. Raven was slinging her cloak on, meaning she was going with BB.

Cy shook his head. "Nah, I gotta wax the T-Car. And besides, there isn't a good movie at the theater that I haven't seen."

Nightwing looked at his wife. "You want to go?"

Star shrugged. "Sure."

"Let's fly."

 **Kilowatt, Porto**

He was glad that they all already had their equipment. It would have sucked to go all the way back to the tower.

They were in the car within minutes. Bee opted to fly.

"So what's the situation?" Mayley asked as she leaned forward into the front of the car.

Aqualad shrugged. "I don't know exactly, details were really blurry. The report said that it was a man flinging fire at a Guard posting."

"Flinging fire…?" Mayley cocked her head to the side.

"We have a new villain in our neck of the woods," Quickdraw interrupted, "Either he has flame-related powers, or he rigged himself with flamethrowers."

"Thanks Captain Obvious." Mayley snorted.

Before long, they were bearing down towards a column of black smoke. They screeched to a halt in front of the post, and marched inwards. From there, they moved forward through blank hallways and past empty offices.

The Captain was on the horn when they found him.

"-guy just came out of nowhere, I've called the Titans, and requested some aerials from headquarters."

"Captain?" Bumblebee asked. The man turned, "What's the situation?"

The Captain wore the standard blue of the Guard, and had a rifle on his back. He cleared his throat noisily; "It's some bum and his accomplices just shooting fire at the post. We've got eleven casualties so far, and I fear it could only get worse."

"Eleven casualties?" Aqualad queried, his brow furrowed. "That doesn't sound good."

The Captain cleared his throat again, looking flustered, "It's bad, and we can't get a shot on him. He just keeps shifting to different locations."

"What is he after?" Quickdraw asked, "Is he even trying to penetrate the building?"

The Captain nodded, "We've driven him away every time, but at this rate our defenses will not hold."

"Right, Titans, lets go." Bumblebee ordered, already moving to the door.

Suddenly the radio crackled with the frantic voice of one of the Guardsmen, "Captain! He's broken through at the back end of the building!"

The Captain paled, and readied his rifle.

Bumblebee had paused when she had heard the report. She thought for a moment, and then started issuing orders, "Kilowatt, key into the electrics and search the corridors. Quickdraw, Mayley, you watch the main hallways that lead from the back end of the building. Aqualad, you're with me, we're staying right outside the office. Keep in touch everyone. Call in every ten minutes."

They took off in separate directions. Kilowatt approached a wall socket, and ripped off the covering. He slid his hand into the hollow, letting the wires slip through his fingers, feeling the familiar electric buzz, and then tapped in. Immediately, he was part of the system, and was able to perceive wherever there was electricity. It was an ability he had gained through much practice.

Instantly, he could sense movement. He locked on it. "Eastern side." He said into his comm. His scratchy, static filled growl was difficult to understand, but these guys had known him long enough to know what he said.

"Right," Bumblebee muttered as she shrunk and was gone.

Kilowatt focused again, and started as he realized that there was more movement all around the center of the building. He concentrated, locking down on one of the moving signatures. His consciousness raced down corridors, and whipped a corner, beholding something truly twisted.

It was a black, hulking, and warped mockery of something that had once been life. It had no discernable face, and it walked on four crooked limbs. If Kilowatt had to guess, he would say it had once been an ape, but it wasn't anything now. Some sort of evil had crept into this creature's flesh and bone. As if it felt his presence, the black creature turned and made some sort of odd hissing noise.

 _Impossible. No normal animal would be able to sense me_. Kilowatt chided himself.

"Multiple intruders all around. Find the bum?" He grunted.

"Oh yeah, we found him all right," Quickdraw replied, "And he's a handful."

"Bee? Find anything?"

"I found some ugly… things, two of them," She replied, her voice sharp, "Looks like our bum has some strong friends."

Kilowatt snapped his communicator shut, and returned to the circuit. He went back to the monster he had found, and watched as Aqualad smashed it with water from coolers and pipes. Then he dashed off to find more of the black creatures.

He looked further, and found Quickdraw and Mayley battling the bum. The man had short blonde hair and was dressed in a very ragged fashion, as if he had gotten his clothes from a dumpster. He was flinging fire at them both, the hallway was scorched.

Then the man gathered up a massive ball of flame, and hurled down the hallways. Mayley dove into an office, and Quickdraw countered with a powerful blast that knocked their attacker back a good ten feet.

"Give it up Constantine, you're not getting by us." Mike growled as his hands glowed with power.

Constantine, the occult master who straddled the line between hero and villain. The man who constantly killed anyone who stood in the way of his own damned crusade against the dark arts of magic.

Why did Titans East always get the worst luck?

"Get _out_ of my way!" Constantine shouted angrily, his hands ablaze, "There are dark forces here!"

"We noticed, and they seem to be your friends Constantine, rather than your enemies." Quickdraw added, taking a step forward.

"They are _not_ my allies," Constantine replied, "Those creatures are aiding the Captain who called you, not me."

"That sounds like an awful lie, you can do better than that," Quickdraw taunted, moving forward as Mayley roared up out of the office in her beast form, grabbing the magic user by the collar and hurling him against the wall.

Constantine was quick to get back up, and lunged at Mayley, daggers of fire protruding from his fists. Mayley leapt at him.

Kilowatt saw no more; other movement had distracted him. From what he could gather, the corrupted had nearly encircled the office he stood in. Aqualad and Bumblebee fought still, but it wasn't enough.

"I'm surrounded." Kilowatt reported into his communicator. He pulled his hand from the current, and allowed the power to crackle over his skin.

Bumblebee's strained voice came from the other end, "Hold, everyone. We've got to figure out what's going on."

Mayley's panicked voice suddenly came over the radio. "He got past us! Quickdraw's down!"

Kilowatt cursed, and crept towards the door, readying him for Constantine to burst through it. Lightning rippled on his back and down his arms.

He wasn't ready when Constantine burst through the wall in the middle of a fireball, throwing the captain back against the pale wall, and Kilowatt into a desk. He reacted quickly, enwreathing his fist with electrical power, dealing Constantine a blow that reduced him to his knees. He countered with a wave of force that blew him across the room again; Constantine spoke a charm then, some sort of magical binding that Kilowatt immediately started to resist. It was to no avail, Constantine walked forward casually contemplating the captain, obviously deciding how best to kill him.

"You've been messing around with the wrong crowd," He hissed, the captain only pushed himself against the wall further, a look of terror on his face.

Constantine extended his hand, and fire awoke at his fingertips. Kilowatt struggled mightily, a few more seconds and he'd be free.

There was a sudden crash as more corrupted flew into the office, and there was suddenly nothing but a chaotic hurricane of displaced office supplies and blasts of fire. To add to the carnage, Aqualad and Bee leapt in after the corrupted, setting upon their foes with water and power blasts. Kilowatt snapped the spell and joined them.

It was all over within a minute. The Captain, and Constantine, were gone.

Bumblebee exhaled, "The ape-things aren't aligned with Constantine, I saw him reduce one to ash." She snapped her comm open. "Mayley, how's Quickdraw?"

"He's fine, though Constantine really cold cocked him. We're going to have to catch up later." She reported.

"Come on, we can't let him escape." Bee ordered. She led the way as they sprinted down a torn hallway. "There!" She shouted.

Ahead, Constantine was holding the Captain by his collar with one hand, and the other was raised, with a deadly ball of fire dancing in the palm.

The hand fell, and the fire reduced the Captain to ash.

"Damn it!" Bumblebee growled as she fired a blast. Kilowatt and Aqualad followed suit with lances of water and lightning.

The occult master absorbed their attacks and replied with a powerful blast of energy that threw Kilowatt backwards, pushed Bumblebee to the side, and took down Aqualad. He followed up another binding spell that entrapped the heroine, and fire gathered once more in his palms.

Kilowatt got to his feet in time to throw another bolt and electrified one of Aqualad's blasts. The latter nailed Constantine in the gut, breaking past his magical defenses, but he was quick to get back up.

"You are all fools." He growled as he slung more balls of fire at them.

Kilowatt called up a static shield that deflected all of them, then discharged the shield, sending coils of electricity rolling across the air at Constantine. The occult master was forced to dodge yet again, and beside him, Bumblebee rose, free of the spell.

Constantine hesitated, obviously not liking his chances.

"Give it up, Constantine, you're finished." Aqualad said. Behind them, Mayley and a revived Quickdraw were quickly coming even.

Their opponent smiled grimly. "This fight is over. I will warn all of you once. Do not get in my way."

"Light him up." Bee growled. As one, she, Aqualad, Kilowatt, and Quickdraw all fired their powers off. Mayley made a dash to the right, preparing to sweep around the firestorm and clean up.

But when the smoke cleared, Constantine was gone.

"God dammit." Marley sighed.


	4. The First Strike

**So, I'm not dead. I just lost my internet for nearly a month, and I had a technical disaster where I lost nearly ten chapters worth of material from various sources. Thats why you back everything up (which I didn't do, please learn from my pain).**

 **And an additional announcement: No one is getting pregnant in this story. This is not MTV. With all this being said, enjoy the latest.**

 **Beast Boy, Black Hat Cinema**

They were watching some god-awful action flick they had picked out at random. Less than an hour in, he completely lost interest, and began whispering jokes on the movie into Raven's ear. A few of them made her smile.

Onscreen, the main rushed into the scene, his comically large beak taking up half the picture. "How do we design a nose cone?'

"Look down." Gar suggested.

Rae spat soda onto her lap, and shook with silent laughter for about five minutes straight, drawing a grin from Beast Boy and curious looks from Nightwing and Star. He'd gotten her to laugh again, the sixth time to date, and the first time he wasn't the only one to see it.

He was getting to her, slowly but surely. She was more like to smile now, and she was warming to him, Gar could tell. They spent as much time together as Rob and Star did, talking mostly, though he'd been able to drag her out of the Tower more than a few times.

Beside him, Starfire had placed her head on Rob's shoulder. He, in turn, was feeding her popcorn. For a brief moment, Beast Boy was tempted to try the same with Rae, but quickly dismissed it as a bad idea, like when he had pinched her nose close while she was sleeping on the T-Ship.

Though, Gar was sorely tempted to try the old reach-around. Why not, he had put his arms around her before, and there were a few times she hadn't seemed to mind. Raven leaned over the armrest between them to get at their popcorn again, her long hair falling off her right shoulder, and tickling his bare left arm. He'd gone without the spandex today, choosing simple jeans and a t-shirt.

What the hell, with a yawn and silent hope that she wouldn't rip his arm off; Beast Boy slid his arm about her shoulders, hand curving around her left. Rae stiffened for a second, but relaxed just as fast, even turning her head for a brief moment, pushing her face against his shoulder.

Did she just _nuzzle_ him?

Beast Boy nearly tipped the bucket propped on his lap onto the floor, and a quick glance at Raven gave him nothing. Her face was impassive as always, giving nothing away.

She was driving him insane. There were days when they couldn't manage a kind word to the other, and then there were days when this happened. When she would nuzzle him, or hug him, or give him the smallest indication possible that maybe, he had a chance with her.

Raven wasn't like, well, anyone, but after so many years of being green, Beast Boy knew how to look past what others couldn't. It didn't bother him that Star was an alien, or that Vic was half robot, or that Raven had a demon for a father.

Gar would be a filthy hypocrite if it did. He had been under a wacky experiment that had left him green, fanged, long-eared, and able to turn to animals. It had saved his life, sure, but it wasn't easy, being _different_. Even if you became a superhero, there was plenty of baggage to go along with it.

His thoughts drifted back to Raven, she was relaxed in the crook of his arm, watching the movie impassively. She wasn't like other girls, aside from the half-demon part. Sure, there were Goth girls who were dark like her, sure, there were girls with her dry sense of humor, but Raven was…

Something else, he couldn't figure out why he had fallen for her so damn hard. Hell, Gar still wondered how they had stayed friends over the years, all the fights that they had. But the fights had brought them closer, not pushed them apart, and the fights they had nowadays were tamer.

He whispered another joke in her ear. Her lips upturned ever so slightly.

Beast Boy couldn't help it. He loved to see her smiling, loved it even more when she laughed. Raven had been through pain he could understand, pain that made you put up barriers. She had her stony exterior, he his jokes and humor. BB had learned her story slowly over the years. She had done the same to him, coaxing out his life story, even if he didn't want to tell it. It had felt better after Gar had gotten it out, like he had thrown some of the weight off his back.

Though, none of the Titans knew how he'd gotten his powers, and he was determined they'd never know. Vic had asked, once, Raven too, but he had shut both of them down. It was a tale he couldn't tell, at least not yet.

The movie finally ended, the main lead sweeping his princess complex off her feet. BB snickered; Raven looked like she wanted to gag. They walked out the theater, talking crap about the film.

"You seemed to get a laugh out of it Raven." Nightwing said, eyeing her curiously, Starfire smirked. Somehow, Gar knew she had noticed his arm around Rae's shoulders.

"I wasn't laughing, I was choking." Raven replied, she locked eyes with Beast Boy and gave him the slightest of smiles. "A bad movie and Beast Boy's jokes?" She shuddered. "Horrible."

He was quick to grin in return. "I've never heard someone choke so cheerfully. Admit it, I made you laugh."

Raven rolled her eyes. Nightwing laughed.

And then their night was ruined. A voice rang out. "How adorable."

Beast Boy's stomach sank. Only a creepy uncle or a supervillain would say crap like that, and he was in no mood to fight either. With a weary, collective sigh, they turned to face the guy.

But his sigh died in this throat, which closed. Glasses, a white lab coat, he smiled at Beast Boy. "Hello again Garfield."

Dr. Register. Zookeeper.

His vision blackened, and the last sound he heard was the roar of the Beast.

 **Arsenal, Japan, three miles south of Tokyo**

"Liang, tell me you're in position."

"One moment, I couldn't warp over to the back of the house, the light would give me away."

Arsenal gave him five minutes. "Team, call in."

"I am here." Bushido reported.

"In position." Liang assured.

"Ready." Freefall said, the noise telling she was up in the clouds somewhere.

Dice was the last to call in. "Rifle's ready." She was probably up in a tree, like Arsenal was.

The house was currently playing host to a small army of pefs and their officers. The Runners had dropped a hint about this house, Ghost apparently having scouted the place out solid. The enigmatic spy had left a dead drop buried under a rusted car, how he didn't know, but Freefall had made it easy. She had ripped the car in two, and dug till she found it.

"All mark." Arsenal ordered. "Looking post, roof."

The rest of the team reported their marks. Roy drew back his bow, explosive arrow on the string. "Go."

He loosed, and the post exploded, bodies and wood flying. Three shots rang, and the front sentries slumped. Freefall fell from the sky, smashing through the roof like a meteor. Bushido leapt through a window, and set to work. Liang smashed through a wall in a sheet of flame, and drew his own sword.

Arsenal drew and fired, drew and fired. They needed to overwhelm the pefs instantly, or their numbers would begin to tell. There was a great crash, and an entire squad of soldiers broke through the wall, falling to the ground limply. Freefall stood in the breach, peering down at the men in amusement before turning back inside to continue the fight.

When Roy ran out of targets outside, he started firing arrows inward, no explosives. He didn't want to risk any of the three that were inside. Another wall shattered, this time Liang flying outwards, wreathed in flame. A pef in a power suit stood in the shattered hole, and Arsenal spat an arrow at him. Power suit guy blocked it with his gauntlet, but was unprepared when Liang stepped out of moonlight behind him. One cut of the sword finished it.

The sounds of fighting began to die down, and Arsenal could see no more sentries outside.

"I don't see anymore." Dice reported. "I think that's all she wrote."

"All who wrote?" Liang asked.

"Liang, I swear, if you don't stop saying that…"

Bushido chimed in. "It is clear. We have three prisoners, and a visitor."

Arsenal didn't ask who the visitor was. He fired a grappling arrow into the old timber of the house, cinched the line on his end, and rode the wire all the way down.

Roy landed into a mess. There was rubbish strewn all over, furniture was overturned and burning. Bushido and Freefall stood over three men in officer's uniforms. To his surprise, Ghost stood amongst the chaos as well, cloaked, cowled, and dressed entirely in dark blue. She nodded at him as he hit the floor.

There was a flash, and Liang winked into the light, Dice beside him. The alien leaned over, hands on his knees, panting. Teleportation was a stressful process.

"I've already called the guard. They're on their way to clean up." Ghost said, her voice muffled by her mask.

"Thanks." Arsenal said. "I thought you left."

"I was back in the neighborhood." She shrugged. "I figured I could help you guys out." Ghost was a member of the Runners, the so-called 'metahuman FBI'. They tracked criminals of all stripes, and had established ties with the Titans a couple years ago.

The guard squad announced itself five minutes later, by crashing through the door downstairs. Ghost took her leave. The Runners always made a point to be gone by the time the guard showed up. Why, Arsenal didn't know.

"I'll go greet them. Say what happened." Freefall muttered, stumbling a bit as she moved to the door, with Bushido on her heels.

On the other side of the room, Liang leaned against the wall, still breathing heavily. Dice was already urging him to the floor. "You've stressed your powers too much. Sit down."

"I agree." Arsenal grunted. "Take five General Lee."

Liang slid to the floor. "I still do not understand that nickname."

"Nor will you ever." Dice said, and pressed a bottle of water into his hand. "Here, drink this."

Liang took a swig, and looked up at Dice. "You put achis in this?"

She cocked her head to the side. "I thought you like that stuff."

He smiled up at her. "I do. Thanks."

Dice ruffled his hair as way of response. Arsenal grinned and looked out a window.

Once the squad got upstairs, Roy made sure they weren't caught up in any of the clean-up. They had done enough.

The walk back to the T-Ship wasn't so bad; Cyborg had done them a favor once, and augmented the ship so it could fly on its own. The dark blue vessel had landed just five hundred feet away from the house.

Dice wearily hauled herself into the center seat; she was always the one that flew the ship. Arsenal sat in the forward chair, Liang and Bushido on the wings, Freefall in the rear.

The ship started and shuddered, all the systems coming on. Arsenal keyed in his mike. "Nice work Titans, drinks or, anything else, is on me tonight." There was a muttered chorus of thanks. He doubted they could do more. They were all exhausted.

On the flight back, only Dice and Arsenal himself remained awake. The rest had fallen asleep in the liftoff or the minutes after. "Hey Arse, does this mean you'll buy me a joint?"

"You know, it's bad enough you got Liang crazy about weed." Arsenal grunted. Luce was the only one who could ask him that kind of question.

"I never forced him. Besides, have you seen him stoned? It's cute _and_ hilarious." Dice snickered.

"I have seen him high. He teleported into my room one night to give me a speech about the history of wheat."

"He's hopeless." But the traces of affection in her voice told him something different.

"I don't think its weird, you know."

"What?"

"That you and our resident alien are dating."

The ship lurched, Lucy sputtered. "We aren't- I mean, we just-"

Arsenal grinned. "Dice, seriously, everyone knows. You two haven't been very subtle."

Dice sighed. "I guess we haven't."

"Is it working out?"

"Yes." There was a tremendous amount of warmth in that one word. "I never thought I would date an alien."

"At least Lee never has to worry about you being kidnapped."

"Lois Lane ought to have superpowers. You think Superman would be pissed if we injected her with some weird chemical?"

"I don't know the guy, but I would say yeah. He wouldn't be very happy."

"Oh well. Thanks for staying awake, if I wasn't distracted, I probably wouldn't dozed off by now."

"You're welcome. Besides, I don't feel like crashing into the ocean."

"We'd be fine. You can only sink this thing if you want to."

"That's not much of comfort."

They continued to chat idly until they arrived at the Tower, dominating Lone Isle, the small island that sat less than a mile from the coast. Their tower was the second oldest one still in existence. It had been built soon after the Titans adventure in Tokyo, and Arsenal had been handed the reins. At first, it had only been him and Bushido, with Thunder and Lightning staying nearby to provide support. Then Dice had wandered into Jump City, and quickly agreed to join Titans West. Freefall had then joined, Bushido convincing her. Lastly, Liang had come from the heavens, tracking a fugitive from his home world.

They had helped, Dice delivering the kicker when she had disabled the criminal with a shot that blew half his ass off. Liang had been so impressed he joined the team.

When they landed, Liang and Freefall didn't wake up. Freefall was the heaviest sleeper on the team. If she fell asleep, nothing short of a full on firefight could wake her. She hadn't told much of her story. What they did know was that she'd gotten her powers from a steroid when she had still been a gymnast. The mutation had made her skin the same strength as steel, and given her powers of flight.

Bushido scooped Freefall out of her seat as Arsenal helped Dice get Liang onto her back. Of course, he woke up as they were doing this, and got out of his seat with some difficulty.

Dice dealt in luck, and fortune. Her ability was to sense which choice had better odds of success, and thus was always very lucky. Liang could spin flame, teleport where there was starlight, and was damn good with the sword he wore.

They all stumbled wearily to their rooms, Liang and Dice stumbling into one of theirs. Bushido put Freefall in her bed, and then went to his own door.

"Goodnight Arsenal." Bushido grunted.

"Night Bushido." Arsenal slipped inside his dim room, detaching his weapons belt and tossing it on his bed. He struggled out of the supersuit, spandex was tricky.

In his underclothes, he was about to jump into bed when he noticed the blade at his throat, the cool metal lightly resting on his skin. He followed it, going up a green clothed arm until he found himself staring at a familiar mask.

Cheshire.

 _Oh shit_.


	5. A Warning

**Hoo boy. Brace yourselves, this is a long one. It was about four thousand words when I last checked it. But I urge you to pay attention, this is an important chapter. Titans South makes their debut, and we catch up with both Arsenal and BB. Also, I found out five minutes ago that WG's lasso does not, in fact, make one tell the truth. Well, now it does.**

 **Enjoy the latest!**

 **Kid Flash, Mogadishu, Somalia**

"Thanks for gagging him." Flash said as Jinx returned to the window. "I thought he would never get tired of talking."

"Your welcome." Jinx studied her dirty fingernails. "We need to stay at someplace nice tonight."

"I know. I already checked us into that really nice hotel outside of the city." Wally said as he looked the window, searching for Titans South.

Jinx blinked. "And how did you know that's the one I wanted?"

"Because I know you." Flash looked at her. "You like luxury, and decent waffles."

Jinx nearly blushed. "Thanks."

He smiled. "Of course." He straightened. "There they are."

Wonder Girl stepped from the crowd, black hair bouncing as she strode determinedly towards the building. Behind her were two other members of Titans South, Hot Spot and Risk.

Jinx popped the door open with her magic, and Risk was the first one in, relaxing when he saw Wally and Jinx. "Sup guys?"

"Hey Risk." He approached and broshook his hand, doing the same to Hot Spot when he walked through the door.

The W was more businesslike, though she gave them both a smile. "Argent and Prysm are watching from the air."

"You think we were followed?" Jinx asked.

"Doubt it." Wonder Girl shrugged. "Where's the prisoner?"

Jinx pointed, and they all came up on the bound and gagged peffer. Flash ripped off the man's gag, and immediately the man started screaming curses at them. He shut up when Hot Spot threatened to burn his mouth close.

Wonder Girl unwound her lasso, and the man growled. "I'll never talk for you freaks. Go to hell."

"You'll talk." Wonder Girl tossed the lasso about him, drawing it tight around his body. "Now, what are the latest plans of the PEF?"

The man remained silent.

"I think your lasso is broken." Flash said.

"No, the lasso always works." Wonder Girl stepped a bit closer to the man. "We just didn't ask the right question."

"Are there any plans that you know of that puts any team of Titans in danger?" Risk asked. That got a reaction, the man started sweating, his face turned red with the effort of not speaking.

"You must answer." Wonder Girl said, tugging hard on the rope.

"There is a plan." It was if the words had been dragged through his mouth. "A bomb will be planted at-" He cut himself off, veins standing out on his forehead.

"Answer." Wonder Girl ordered.

"Titans Tower, the original." The man grunted. Flash's blood froze, could it be true?

"When was it planted? And when will it detonate?" Hot Spot asked.

"It was planted three weeks ago, and will detonate tomorrow."

"What else? Are there other plans like that?" Wonder Girl demanded.

"None other than to cut off the head of the snake." The peffer growled. Wally had a sudden desire to toss the man in a tank of piranha.

Wonder Girl yanked her lasso off him. She looked at Jinx. "Knock him unconscious?"

"Gladly." All it took was a blast of magic.

"I'm calling Cyborg." Wonder Girl's communicator was open and at her ear. "They have to do a scan."

"They won't find a bomb." Jinx said. "That sounded like a bluff."

"You can't bluff past the lasso, it makes you say the truth."

"No, it makes you say what you believe to be true." Jinx persisted. "What if PEF just tells all the operatives that to mislead us?"

Flash curled an arm around her shoulders. "We can't take the risk of not checking."

"Well, yeah, they should check, but we shouldn't panic." Jinx said. "It's probably nothing."

"Uh huh." Wonder Girl said. "Cyborg, it's Donna, we just got information that there's a bomb planted somewhere at your tower. Request you do a scan."

There was chatter on the other end. Donna frowned. "Wait, _what_ happened? Oh hell, is he going to be alright?"

More chatter. "Alright, just double check for us, actually, make that a triple check. We don't want you guys homeless."

She clapped her com shut, and sighed.

"What's up?" Risk asked. "Who's in trouble?"

"Beast Boy went- um, wild I guess." Wonder Girl frowned. "Apparently, some guy, a meta, confronted four of them when they were in the city. BB got one look at him and went berserk."

"A misdirection." Jinx said. "They're drawing the attention of the Titans away from their tower."

"Can't be." Hot Spot frowned. "The PEF hates metahumans, they would never employ one."

"There's something we're missing." Flash said. "A piece of the puzzle we don't see yet."

Wonder Girl unwound her lasso again. "We need to ask better questions."

Jinx woke the operative back up, and Donna slung the lasso around his shoulders. The man glared at them. Jinx stepped forward. "What is the PEF?"

"The future."

"Who leads?"

"The Chancellor."

"Do you know his name?"

"No."

Hot Spot took the next line of questioning. "How big is the organization?"

"Large enough to swallow the world." The man smiled. "And large enough to destroy you Titans."

Flash leaned down to whisper in Jinx's ear. "We're not getting anywhere."

She agreed by shaking her head in frustration. "None of the information we have makes sense."

But then Risk stepped forward. "Donna, how exactly does your lasso work?"

"It makes you tell the truth. You know this." She replied impatiently.

"And what if there are multiple truths to pick from?"

Wonder Girl opened her mouth to answer, but studied the peffer with renewed intensity. "He's been misleading us."

Risk knelt in front of the man. "My friend, you haven't been giving us the right answers. Now, tell me, who _exactly_ hired Dr. Register? Was it the PEF?"

The man was sweating like a pig. "No."

"Who was it? You know, now tell us, or you'll find out just how much pain we 'freaks' can put you through." Risk hissed, bringing his face menacingly close to the man's face.

The prisoner paled. "W-we heard rumors."

"Tell us everything, now."

"That the Zookeeper, he was hired by a man in armor, with a black and orange mask."

 _Slade_. Flash felt his gut tie into a knot. Slade hadn't made any sign of his presence since Iceland, when he had sent mercenaries to storm the Tower in Reykjavik.

"Is Slade the high chancellor of the PEF?" Risk asked.

"No, the chancellor is an old man." The man was shaking with the effort of silencing himself. "He has a wife."

Risk looked shocked at this. "When was the PEF formed?"

"Half a year after the Paris incident."

Risk grabbed the man by the throat. "What do you know about Paris?"

"There was a slaughter of people by you freaks." The man spat. "Countless innocents dead."

"Is the PEF real?"

"Yes."

Jinx conked him with a wave of magic. "The PEF isn't real. Who's the only old man that was at Paris?"

Wonder Girl paled. "Oh God."

The realization struck Flash like a thunderbolt. "And when did Immortus escape the ice?"

"Two months after Paris." Jinx's voice was full of anger. "How did we not see this?"

Hot Spot was the only one who didn't get it. "What, so Immortus controls the PEF?"

"No, the PEF is the New Brotherhood." Wonder Girl said. "And it's taken us this long to figure it out."

"Better late than never." Risk rose. "Central needs to know this."

Donna already had her com in her hand, but as she went to flick it open, both Prysm's and Argent's voices rang through, alarmed shouting.

Jinx's eyes glowed. "Get down!" Flash didn't hesitate, using his super speed to knock everyone to the floor. And he did it in the nick of time. Bullets punched through the walls behind them, flying over their heads. If they had been standing, they would all be dead. A grenade flew threw through a blown window, but Jinx used her magic to fling it back.

Flash looked to the captured peffer. The man was dead, riddled with holes. "How did they find us?"

There was no time for an answer. Argent came over the com again. "Get out, get out! They have rockets!"

Of _course_ they did.

 **Arsenal, Titans West Tower**

Roy was screwed. No weapons, no element of surprise, all the advantages lay with her.

She pressed the steel hard against his skin. "What, not even a hello for me?"

Arsenal sighed. "Hello Jade. Why do you have a sword to my throat?"

"So this won't get violent." Cheshire replied. "I came to warn you."

"About?" Arsenal asked, an eyebrow raised. Last time he had seen her, they had nearly killed each other.

"You're in danger, your whole team is." She brought her masked face closer to his. "And it's in my best interest not to have you die."

Interesting. It wasn't like her to give him a trump card. "Why don't you show your face? I've seen it before."

"Because I know you. I would have two seconds of temporary blindness if I took it off. That's enough time for you to grab a weapon."

"So what's the warning?" Roy asked.

"You're marked, Roy. You know the Cabal?"

"The Meta terrorists? Why would they mark us?"

"Because you just pissed them off."

"For what? We just busted a PEF operation. The two organizations have no ties at all." Roy frowned. "You're lying."

"What would that gain me?" Cheshire replied, the sword drew back. "I know it makes no sense. All I know is that the Cabal marked your team for death when you took down that op."

Roy smiled at her. "That's not why you're here Jade. You couldn't infiltrate the Tower in an hour. It would take even you longer than that." He rose a hand to her mask. "You could have put the sword to my throat when I dumped my weapons."

Her eyes glittered with mischief. "Stop changing the subject. And besides, your com is attached to the suit. I don't want your team to come busting in."

"And when did I ever need the team for you?" Arsenal said. He was willing to bet her face was red beneath the mask. "You know I prefer- _one on one_."

"That's not why I'm here." Cheshire answered. "There's something else."

"Yeah?" Arsenal worked gently at her mask. "How important is it?"

As her mask fell, Jade put the blade to his throat again. "Very important." The sword fell when she saw he hadn't moved. "Ever heard of the Micoran Hegemony?"

"I'm guessing they're aliens." Arsenal deadpanned. "And that they're going to invade."

Jade nodded, and took a step closer. "There have been reports of something moving in the fringes of the solar system."

He decided not ask how she knew this. "Do they have an ETA?"

"Sometime around the 5th of January. That's what the earliest estimates say."

"Isn't that when the new Independence Day movie comes out?" Roy cocked a grin. "Talk about bad timing."

"You don't sound worried." Cheshire sheathed her sword, and tossed it aside.

"The Titans have fended off a trans dimensional demon that turned the Earth into a wasteland, and fought off an alien invasion from lizard people." Arsenal deadpanned. "And that was before they founded four more teams. Whoever these aliens are, we can handle them."

"Hmm." Cheshire's fingers curled about his neck, her poisoned tipped nails dangerously close to his jugular. "Do you know how many contracts I've been offered that involve killing you?"

"Do you know how many times I get asked about you?" Arsenal asked softly, his hand slid onto her back. "Where you are, who you are, if I have you in custody."

"I've lost money over you." Cheshire growled.

"And thanks to you, I have assholes in suits breathing down my neck." Arsenal said softly.

"I could kill you." She whispered. "Get rid of so many problems. I wouldn't have to refrain from killing the good guys, I wouldn't have to be so selective in my targets."

"I could cuff you." He replied. Her lips were close. "I wouldn't have to worry about being branded an outlaw. I wouldn't be looking for you, over my shoulder, all the damn time."

"Oh?" Jade breathed. "You look for me?" Her smile was hungry. "How adorable."

Roy pulled her even closer. "You could defect. Others have done it."

"They weren't assassins." Arms about his neck. " _Be_ an outlaw Roy, I know you don't like authority, others would have turned me in. You didn't."

He thought of the promise they had both made. "I keep my promises."

"Maybe you should make another one." Her breath was warm on his lips. "Why not run away with me?"

"You know I can't."

"You can. Forget the Titans."

"Can you make a deal?"

"Perhaps." Her voice was a needy purr. Breath hissed between her teeth as Roy dropped a hand below her back.

"Let's forget about the sides for now, make it like the first night." Finally, their lips came together. It was a hungry kiss.

"As I recall." Cheshire whispered. "I nearly killed you that night."

"I was remembering what came _after_." He lifted her, her legs wrapping about his waist.

"I swear, if you try to cuff me to the bed again, I will kill you."

He had nothing but smiles. "Got it." He peeled her boots off, and tackled her hard into the sheets.

 **Raven, Jump City**

They had split up. Whoever the guy was, he'd taken off after Gar had gone Beast. He'd transformed into a purple cheetah, and went running down the street. Gar had gone after him, so fast not even Star or herself could keep up.

But Raven was close to him. She could sense it. Every person had their own sort of aura, natural bio energy that fizzled off in waves. All Raven had to do was focus, and she could follow an energy trail like Beast Boy could track a scent.

She was worried. The last time Gar had lost control, it had been due to toxic chemicals, and it had taken him a week to go wild. How bad could this doc be?

Raven was anxious to find him, and also to pound the doc into the pavement. She wasn't scared for herself. Gar had proven he would never harm her, even when he was out of control; his first instinct when it came to her was to protect.

A roar rang from an alleyway, and she left her feet, gliding quickly towards the noise. Turning a corner, she was in time to see Gar go flying into a wall, two arrows sticking out of his chest. The purple changeling followed, drawing his clawed fist back as a man in black nocked two more arrows onto his bow.

Raven pressed another button on her com, letting the team know her location. That was the last thing she managed before her temper roared up like a storm. If they hurt Gar, she was going to hurt them back.

A black claw slammed the changeling down, and a dumpster went flying at the archer. He rolled, firing two arrows at her. She snapped them in half.

"Hammer!" The archer called. There was a flash, a blast, and then she was tumbling head over heels into a wall, her innate magic shielding saving her from worse.

A roar, and Beast Boy leapt at Hammer, a man hovering in a power suit. The purple guy leapt after BB, but she slammed him down again. There was a twang of a string, and Raven threw up a barrier in time to deflect two arrows.

The archer in black nocked an arrow that glowed, like one of Arsenal's. She knew who he was. The Black Arrow, assassin, terrorist, all around bad guy.

Raven was about to throw another dumpster at him when a hand closed about her throat. Instinctively, she pushed outwards with her magic, and a woman became visible, nearly howling in dismay as she flew into a different dumpster. She glared at Raven, and suddenly smoke began creeping from the buildings. Heavy, lurking smoke, like the stuff that had appeared in the Brotherhood base this morning.

She had to help Gar. He was a damn good fighter, but so was the doc, and Hammer packed a punch.

"Mysk!" Arrow called, his arrow still pointed at Raven. "Blend it!" He fired, and his arrow split into ten, flying at her in different directions.

An illusion; Raven cast up another shield, blocking the arrow. With a gesture, she blew them both back, knocking Mysk on her ass. The archer nocked another arrow.

It was no good, he wouldn't stop fighting unless she put him out of commission. To that effect, she scooped him up with her magic, and threw him in a massive arc, his screaming the only thing he left behind.

"Nate!" Mysk wailed. She glared at Raven murderously, and charged forward, smoke swirling about her. The villain went invisible again, but Raven slapped her backwards hard, stunning her.

Across the alley, Gar was still fighting hard. The purple doc had him in a headlock, but BB broke it, and slammed his open palm into his enemy's chest. He hit the wall, breath leaving his body.

Gar growled, and stepped forward. The doc suddenly laughed as he lounged against the wall, beaten and bleeding. "You haven't won Garfield. This is only the beginning. Soon, you'll get to watch as the family you still have _dies_." Beast Boy leapt at him with a howl of rage, but the doc fell through the wall as a portal opened up behind him. Of course, it vanished just as quickly.

A quick glance to her left confirmed that Mysk had vanished as well, but Raven didn't care. She only had eyes for Gar. He had sunk to his knees, panting. She could see obvious wounds all over him, burns, scratches, and cuts.

Raven rushed to his side, hands glowing, she pressed them to the worst of his wounds.

 _Rae._ That was Gar, his voice clear in her head.

 _Shut up and lie still_. She ordered. Since healing was a very empathic motion, minds were often linked during the process.

 _I'm sorry. I lost control again._ Guilt was ripping him up. His anger was retreating, but she could tell he'd been overwhelmed by rage.

 _It's fine._ She soothed. _Switch back to human, the beast form is taking too much of your strength._ Gar complied. Raven was very glad he couldn't see her face; he would've gotten too much satisfaction out of how red her face became. Emotion surged, and she shut it down.

Raven had forgotten Gar hadn't been wearing his supersuit. Which meant that the only clothing that stuck with him had been his briefs. Thank Azar. If he had suddenly been nude, her powers might have wiped out a city block.

She swung her cloak off. "Here, sit on this."

Gar obeyed, landing on her cloak with a grunt of pain. He leaned against the wall, eyes shutting.

"Don't." Raven growled. "You're not sleeping till I make sure you're healthy."

His eyes opened a bit, and a slight smile broke out. "Yes ma'am."

Raven refocused, closing a wound on his chest, another on his leg that had nearly cut his femoral. The fear for him disappeared. His fast healing abilities were in full swing, aided by her magic.

"This reminds me of Vancouver." Gar muttered.

"Vancouver was worse." Raven reminded him. And it had been, Gar had been close to death when the Titans had come to his rescue. He had been shot seven times, but still managed to slip away. She had found him underneath a bridge, clumsily patching his wounds, weak from blood loss.

"Zookeeper."

"What?" She pressed water into his hand.

"The purple asshole." Gar drank; wincing as Raven forced another wound shut, skin stitching itself back together. "Dr. Samuel Register."

"How long have you known him?" Raven asked cautiously. Her mind went back to earlier in the day, when Gar had finally agreed to allow her to check his psyche. There had been no damage, but she had seen what Phobia had shown him. However, that hadn't been all. The fear had linked itself to something else in his consciousness, a walled cluster of memories that pulsed with raw pain.

Before she could even touch the wall, or even study it further, Gar had pushed her hand away. His story was the only one they didn't know. Even Robin had told of his days with Batman. Raven had been inside Robin's head, and their leader didn't know pain like Gar's. She knew of no one other than herself who could relate.

"All my life." Beast Boy muttered. "I should have said something. I knew he would turn up again."

"Stop apologizing. You don't have to tell us anything." Raven chided. "Secrets are secrets for a reason."

Gar shook his head. "They can't be secrets anymore. Not if they put any of you in danger."

He tried to rise, and she pushed him back down. "Don't."

"I'm fine Rae." He protested.

"I'll be the judge of that." Raven said firmly. She heard Nightwing and Starfire land behind him.

"Beast Boy." Nightwing crouched by his side. "What happened? Where's the other guy?"

"Gone." Raven answered for Gar. "Disappeared into a portal that looked like one of Warp's."

"Great." Nightwing growled. "So now Warp is involved."

"He wasn't alone Dick." Gar said. "The Brotherhood arrived as soon as I cornered Zookeeper."

"How many?"

"Four, counting Warp. Black Arrow showed up and put two arrows in my chest. Hammer and Mysk got here when Raven did." He shifted on the wall, already looking stronger. "Hammer is that guy in the power suit we fought in LA, Mysk was responsible for all that smoke in Paris this morning. Where's Cy?"

"Scanning the Tower." Starfire answered. "We have information that decrees there is a bomb."

"A bomb?" Gar tried to get up again, and she again prevented it. "Raven, for the love of- I'm _good_."

"It's probably nothing." Nightwing said. "But better safe than sorry."

"No kidding." Gar replied. "I'd rather not be homeless."

Raven brushed her hand over his chest, checking his vitals. "I'm going to take him back to the Tower." She looked at Nightwing, posing the silent question.

"We'll meet you there." He said. "Cy's probably already done with the scan."

Raven nodded, and she became shadow, carrying Gar with her. It wasn't easy to focus, since he was lacking in clothes and she had to carry him close. They made it regardless, landing right in the med bay.

Once he saw where they had arrived, he protested immediately. "Oh come on. Look at me, I'm fine; I just need a nap or something."

"And clothes." Raven tried to ignore how close he was to her. It hadn't mattered before. She was healing him then. Now though, with everything quiet, it was hard not to stare. He had packed on more muscle recently, and grown an inch taller than her, much to her annoyance.

Gar grinned at her. "What, so you'll finally stop blushing?" He knocked her cowl back. "I think you like more than the ears."

She glared, spun on her heel, and rummaged through one of the lockers. She chucked a robe at him, and stalked out.

Pain in the ass. Why she ever bothered to heal him, she would never know. Raven went to go find Cyborg, intending to help with the bomb search.

 _I think you like more than the ears_. It would've been less aggravating if those words weren't true.

 **One last thing, this concerning Cheshire and Arsenal. Their daughter, Lian, doesn't make an appearance in this one. It was a very tough decision to make, cutting her out, but it's the path I'm taking.**


	6. Incursion

**I'm back. Just to warn you, this is not a happy chapter. It gets a bit dark. But we hear BB's story, and the tale of woe that is Iceland. Enjoy!**

 **And if there's any pieces of text that look like they should be bold, it's because my internet sucks horse dong, and the text got hardcore corrupted when I tried to submit it about 20 damn times.**

 **Beast Boy, Titans Tower**

Gar had gathered the team together after he scooted back to his room and rested for an hour or two, letting his stamina rebuild.

Rae and Cy hadn't found any bomb, in or below the Tower, nor had Nightwing and Star when they had returned to help with the search. It didn't help any of their nerves though.

Now, they sat on the couch as he sat in front of their big screen. The team watched him with expectant eyes. As soon as they were settled, Gar began.

"Go ahead, ask all the questions you want." Beast Boy said. He had decided this way would be easier.

However, the team squirmed in their seats. "BB, you don't have to tell us this." Cy said, his expression was gentle. The entire team looked sympathetic.

"Yeah I do."

Nightwing provided the kicker. "Who is Dr. Register exactly? How do you know him?"

"He worked alongside my parents, way back. He's known me since I was born." Beast Boy said. "When I got my powers, he was jealous of the attention I got, my parents got." He mulled over what to say next. "So he put himself under the same experiment. He has the same powers I do." Gar grinned lightly. "He hasn't gotten any stronger though."

"How exactly did you get your powers man? All you ever told me was that you got sick, and was injected with something." Cy said, obviously picking his words carefully.

"My parents did most of their work in Africa. One day I accidentally wandered into a monkey's territory, or nest, or something like that. One of them jumped me, and I was bitten." Gar shrugged. "It didn't seem bad at first, but I got sick, and got worse quick. I was going to die." He shifted in his seat. "But my dad refused to let it happen. He got desperate, and he injected me with-" They were going to freak out. "Sinogen."

Starfire gasped, Raven look stunned.

" _Sinogen_?" Cy said in shock. "Dude, no wonder your DNA is imbalanced."

Nightwing shook his head in disbelief. "How didn't that kill you?"

"No idea. I think my dad combined it with something else." Gar laughed dryly. "But it gave me all this. I became a phenomenon. My parents were suddenly the stars of the scientific community. I was the new cure for Sakutia, the serum and my blood were worth millions."

"Is that when Zookeeper injected himself?" Nightwing asked.

"I think so. He just disappeared one day. When we checked out his lab, it was a mess." Beast Boy shrugged. "My parents just assumed militia or bandits, and threw him a funeral. A few days later, I found needles and purple fur outside our camp. I didn't think anything of it. The next day-" He cleared his throat with difficulty. "-we went boating, and…" His throat closed, his head was in his hands. The team didn't need him to finish. They knew his parents had died in a boating accident.

Except, it hadn't really been an accident.

"Why didn't you tell us about Zookeeper before?" Nightwing asked. His voice was still gentle, not accusatory or harsh.

"I could never prove what he did. Besides. I thought he had lost track of me after I left the Doom Patrol."

"What exactly did he do?" Raven asked.

"He killed my parents." The old anger was coming up again. "No one believed me when I said I saw a purple shark tipping the boat over, or when the octopus held them under." Beast Boy had to stop talking then, the anger was choking him. He could hear his more savage side whispering in his ear.

The team was wide eyed. They hadn't expected his story to be so dark. "Beast Boy, we can help." Nightwing offered. "We can track this guy and put him behind bars."

"I don't want him in jail. I want him dead." Garfield deadpanned.

There was silence, then Cy rose and yanked BB into a bone crunching bear hug. "Then we'll help you do that too." Vic growled in his ear. "I doubt anyone would miss him."

Then the rest of the team piled on, even Raven, who slipped to his side, her warmth bleeding through his suit. God, he loved his family.

Unfortunately, their tender moment didn't last long. Proximity alerts suddenly kicked off, and the turrets up on the tower roof activated. They could hear the high caliber sonic weapons kicking, firing blasts.

"What the hell?" Cyborg grumbled, tapping at his forearm. "We've got incoming missiles, turrets are knocking them down."

Raven flinched. "It's more than that. We need to get out there."

Beast Boy turned, facing out the window in time to see the missiles start striking in the city, but saw no explosions. "I agree."

 **Static, Titans North Tower, Stockholm**

"Give it juice." Mechmana called from behind the panel.

Static let current loose into the wiring, watching as half the roof lit up. There was a terrible groan in the electronics, and the lights fizzled.

"Wrench." Mana requested, Gnarkk, standing nearby, obliged. There was a series of bangs and cursing from his girl. "Light it up again V."

"Got it." He loosed electricity into the wiring, and the entire roof glowed with light as the circuits finally connected right. The rest of the team cheered.

Their tower was done at last. It had been almost a year of work. A year of living in a crappy, half-finished tower, and times when they had almost all frozen solid when their heat stopped working.

But after all their trials and tribulations, the tower was finished. Static looked over his team. They were all exhausted. An hour ago, they'd been tracking down a lead on the Cult of Blood.

Titans Central, who had relentlessly hounded the order until it self imploded, had driven the Cult out of America. A subordinate had killed Brother Blood, and the Cult had fled, partitioning much of their strength to Europe. Now, it was up to Titans North and East to finish the job. So far, they done a damn good job, and there was rumor that the Cult would flee to South America.

Mechmana grinned up at him, her eyes sparkling. He and Anne had stayed close even after Iceland, and eventually they began to date. When the Titans had decided to rebuild Titans North, He and Anne had been the first ones to volunteer.

Kole and Gnarkk had come next. They had made the decision to come southward after they were nearly captured by a band of ruthless mercenaries. Their room was specially designed to emulate their home back in the north.

Static heard a whap, and turned to see that Typhoon's face was now covered with snow. Wisp was laughing. Ty brushed the snow off and went after Wisp, threatening to soak her.

Wisp was a pale girl from Maine, who had been captured by Slade, and forced to build a massive iceball to roll down on Jump City. The strain nearly killed her. Rescued afterwards by the Titans, she had quickly joined up.

Typhoon caught Wisp quick, his arms coming round her waist. He lifted her off her feet, and declared he was going to throw her in the pool. And that pool was cold, even for Wisp. She protested, the snow swirling about them.

Nicolas was from Stockholm itself, and had been the city's personal protector for years. When the Titans had arrived, he had volunteered to join. At first, Static had hesitated. When teams had six members, bad things seemed to happen, like Terra's betrayal, or when a demon possessed one of your team and tried to use him as a portal.

Static still had nightmares. Herald had never forgiven himself for Iceland. He had been a second away from going back in for Jericho, Wildebeest, and Pantha when the Tower had exploded, because of a massive bomb Slade's mercs planted in the superstructure. Nightwing assumed that Slade did it out of grief, since Trigon had killed Jericho when he tried to use him as a portal. Only a fraction of the demon escaped, and Raven had quickly driven it out.

It had grown worse when Slade had sent a signal hack through their communicators. Unable to talk, they had all been vulnerable. It was a miracle that they'd only lost three Titans.

Over at the pool, Wisp was tangled up with Typhoon; both try to push the other into the pool. They were laughing. Wisp succeeded in tripping Ty just as he stepped forward, but she couldn't slip from his embrace, so he dragged her down into the water with him. He made sure her head was dunked. They both popped up shivering, but relaxed when Typhoon cranked the water temperature up.

Mechmana snickered as Kole whispered something in her ear. Gnarkk put together a simple piston, and then broke it apart.

Ah, the six superstition could go suck a big one, he believed in his team.

"Virgil." Anne said in a warning tone. She pointed at a flying object making a beeline straight for them.

"This can't be good. Wisp, Ty! Up high!" Static called, he summoned his own powers, lightning trailing off his body, as he ran towards the edge of the roof. Typhoon and Wisp leapt from the pool and did the same, Ty drying them both with a gesture.

They gathered, water swirled around Nic, hail around Evie. Mechmana lit up the object with the spotlights, and Static was startled to see that it was a trio of black modules, rocket shaped, spiraling down at them.

"Ty, catch them." Static ordered.

"Got it." Typhoon lashed upwards with water, catching the three in a sphere of water. He brought them down to the roof, and Wisp immobilized them in ice.

Static took a step forward, and the ice exploded. Evie's cry of surprise told him she had nothing to do with it. Out of the modules came three towering figures, all carrying power spears and wearing armor that overlapped like scales.

And as one, they came at the three Titans, screaming strange curses. Static lit up the one in the center, and he deflected most of the force off his spear. He approached, and Virgil ducked to avoid it. He fired off more lightning, and blasted the monster back.

Static charged, dodging under another swipe and slamming his electric fist into the alien's gut. It grunted and slide backwards, Virgil lit him up, letting all his circuits loose. The alien's armor shattered, and he was thrown back, flopping limply to the metal roof.

Wisp had frozen her alien solid, and Gnarkk had smashed him with Kole. Typhoon had hurled his into the ocean.

As they looked over Stockholm, they saw many more modules crash in the city, and soon the screams began.

"Titans, go!"

 **Risk, Mogadishu**

This was ridiculous.

Why did they always have to have rockets? Why was it always rockets?

It didn't matter; Argent and Prysm had already knocked half of the RPG guys down, and the wall had actually held against the first two rockets, though only barely. And when the wall gave way, they were already out. Titans could move fast.

They went around the block and pounded the guys into the dust. As it turned out, they weren't peffers, like Risk had thought. They were disgruntled militants who had, for whatever reason, taken a shot at the Titan safehouse.

The thumping had been easy. Their assailants were badly trained, and horribly equipped. Between them all, they had a grand total of two extra rockets.

All the same, their prisoner was now dead, so they had no reason to remain. Then came the alerts, all their costumes flashing.

"Calling all Titans!" Nightwing barked. Risk felt chills run down his spine. The last time those words had been uttered was in Paris. "We have hostile forces coming down on multiple cities! Titans, defend your Towers, send me a report every half hour. Thunder, Lightning, and Red Star are on containment. All other Radiant Titans, go to where you're needed most. Call Herald if you need a lift, go!"

"Herald! This is Wonder Girl, We need a quick ride back to Sydney!" Donna said into her com as their supersuits flashed.

"What about the ship?" Argent asked.

"We'll come back for it later. " Their suits stopped flashing. The Herald's horn sounded, and he stepped through a rift. The former leader of Titans North lifted his horn to his lips, and blew another blast.

Sydney did not look good, they could already see smoke and hear the sounds of fighting. They all leapt through the rift to find themselves in downtown amidst the chaos.

"Argent, Hot Spot, you have the North, make sure the guard postings on the north shore are intact." They nodded and took off. "Wally, Jinx, cover the outer suburbs, make sure the aliens don't get out too far." They left in a flash of gold and red. "Herald, you're with me. We're going to the Tower."

"Got it." The Herald blew another blast.

Wonder Girl turned to Risk and Prysm. "That leaves you two with the South. Find the police stations, organize a defense." She stepped through the rift with Herald on her heels.

As Prysm gripped him by his biceps, and lifted away with him in tow, Risk had a bad feeling this was the beginning of something that would not end well at all.


	7. Regrouping

**Here's the next.**

 **Arsenal, Unknown Comms Server**

The HSHDCS had been made a year ago, as a way for urgent councils to be held. The system itself was safe and secure, and worked due to a bunch of science Roy had never been able to wrap his head around.

The server had redesigned itself again. The last time Roy had been here, it had looked like a massive Greek Odeon. Now, it was a three-winged council hall with stately pillars everywhere.

They were all here. The Green Lantern was the last to call in, his hologram stemming from the floor. To Arsenal's right was the UN council, with its entire high ranked class. In front of him was the Justice League's big six. The original six. He was glad Green Arrow was not among them. Roy was in no mood to see his former teacher.

He stood to Nightwing's right, with Bumblebee beside him. Wonder Girl and Static were over to the left; all the leaders of the respective teams, standing amongst those who guarded Earth as a whole.

It was nice to receive some recognition.

All ready, a general stepped forward, his aged face betraying his exhaustion. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think we all know why we are here. Last night, an unknown alien force struck no fewer than fifty major cities on Earth. They also made forays against the Justice League and the Titans of Jump City, Porto, Tokyo, Stockholm, and Sydney."

The aged general cleared his throat. "We have had hostiles striking at national monuments, and attempting to damage our infrastructure. Things have calmed down since yesterday, thanks to your help."

Nightwing shifted. "Is there anything else we can do General? My teams stand ready."

"As does the League." Batman said. He and Nightwing exchanged a glance.

Another man from the UN stepped forward. "We are not certain of the identities of these aliens, but some of our sources say they are something called the Micoran Hegemony. Any more information would be helpful."

"We can help with that." Nightwing said. "We have two members, aliens both, that may be able to shed more light on this." He gave Arsenal a meaningful look, but Roy was already motioning to Liang, who was in the comm room with him.

Starfire stepped into the call at the same time as Liang did. The Tamaranian was in full armor; Lee had done the same, his burnished starmetal scales gleaming dully. Star stepped into the center of the room, and Liang followed.

'Tell them everything you know Starfire." Nightwing requested. His voice was less brusque than it had been before.

The alien warrior shifted. "The Micorans are not very well known by my people. The little we know of them was from conflicts many years ago, before I was born."

"What are their military capabilities?" A UN official asked.

Starfire shrugged. "When my world fought them, it was not a- harsh victory. We fought three battles with them. The first was a loss; the second an ambush by our best, and the third was a large battle. It is not well recorded, but one of our greatest challenged their leader to a duel in the middle of it. They fled once he won."

"How do they fight? What kind of technology do they have?"

To this, Starfire shrugged again, and looked to Liang. He nodded and stepped forward. "The Micorans aren't terribly advanced. The strength of this planet would most likely match them, if we all worked together. Do you know how many ships they have in your system?"

"At least ten capital class." The UN general replied. "And many more smaller ones."

" _Ten_?!" Liang asked in astonishment.

"That is much more than what attacked my planet." Starfire commented, looking very worried.

"Is ten bad?" One of the UN asked timidly.

"The Micorans govern themselves by clan." Liang answered. "And ten clans are very troubling, working in tandem. Such numbers have not been seen since-" He shook his head. "-Orgos."

Both aliens looked very troubled. "And what happened on Orgos?" Superman asked.

Liang frowned in Superman's direction. He obviously didn't like the Man of Steel very much. "A disaster. Anywhere between ten and twenty Micoran capital ships descended on the planet and conquered it quickly. The Orgons didn't stand a chance."

"What could they be after? Is negotiating possible?" Wonder Woman proposed.

Starfire was already shaking her head. "The Micorans are relatives of the Gordanians. They are not a nice people."

"On Orgos, the native people were driven to extinction after being enslaved for nearly three hundred years. If we do not defend this planet, humanity will likely cease to exist. Whether they want this planet for resources or if they are finding a new home, they already have declared war." Liang answered. "The attack yesterday was a message to humanity that it's time has ended."

There was complete silence. Batman broke it. "How do they fight? What are their weaknesses?"

"They are not united." Starfire replied. "My people defeated them by slaying their leader."

"And I've seen their alliances broken when they are defeated. The Micorans are practical, if they stand to lose more than they gain, they will not persist." Liang said firmly. "If we break them once, that may be enough."

"Or if we defeat their leaders. We can also set them against each other." Starfire suggested.

Liang nodded in her direction. "Very true. Micorans are fond of treachery. As to how they fight, all of us have seen it already. They are aggressive, bold, and unafraid of dropping any amount of weaponry on a planet. They possess WMDs, fusion missiles, and ship mounted artillery that can rain death. As to their soldiers, we know their armament already."

"Would they nuke us?" Another one from the UN.

"That would ruin Earth." Starfire commented.

Liang agreed. "They're here for something. They won't chance raining fire unless it's against threats. Expect your military bases to be hit."

"What are they here for?" Another question from Superman.

"No idea. It could be the planet itself." Liang answered.

"How should we fight them?" The UN general asked. The Earth spacefleet was still pitifully small, and primitive.

"We aim for their leadership." Batman answered. All eyes swung to him. "If they won't hit us with nuclear weapons, then they will send down soldiers again."

"And we can slip onto their ships." Flash said. "We either blow it up or take it for ourselves."

"How would we take over a completely alien ship?" Aquaman asked. He arched a brow. "We would have no knowledge of its workings."

"A virus." Arsenal proposed. He had tired of being silent. "Just like in Independence Day."

"This isn't a movie." Aquaman countered, frowning.

"Actually." Nightwing said, smiling slightly at Roy. "That could work. Computers are based on math right?"

"The first messages we sent into space were in binary." Static said. "Sending a virus through their systems could work."

"Only if our virus is strong enough." Batman added.

"If we hack into one of their ships, and fire on another…" Liang mused. "We could rip their alliance of clans to shreds."

Everyone was nodding. Then Arsenal asked the critical question, one he already knew the answer to. "When are they getting here?"

"Our earliest estimates say about 24 days. On the 5th of January." The general replied.

"That's four weeks." Another UN official said, shaking her head in despair. "If only we had more time."

"It's the time we have. We will make the most of it." Nightwing said. "I'll get the best hackers I know on the virus issue."

"We will do the same." Superman said. "Any developments we make, we will pass on to you."

Nightwing nodded. "Is the council dismissed?"

"Yes." The UN general looked utterly exhausted. "We can discuss further strategy later."

Nightwing looked to his right and left. "Titans, dismissed."

Arsenal reached upwards and flicked a switch on his helmet, and the room disappeared. Beside him, Liang was doing the same. They hung up their helmets, and Liang suddenly lurched towards the wall. He braced himself against the cool surface with a hand, and retched like he was going to be sick.

"Woah, hey, what's wrong?" Arsenal asked.

Liang shook his head. "I lied Roy. I didn't want to frighten them."

"About what?"

The alien stood. His eyes were sodden with sorrow. "Roy, _seven_ ships attacked Orgos. That planet had twice the population as Earth, and a battle tested fleet. When the Micorans took the planet, they punished the Orgons by killing seven-eighths of the population, and then slaughtered the remainder for fun. The Micorans are the cruelest species in known space. They will not hesitate to kill all of us."

"Did Orgos have Titans?"

"No."

"Exactly. We won't lose General Lee. Stop worrying."

Liang put on a grim smile. "We need to be ready. We will be destroyed if we aren't."

"We will be ready." Arsenal grinned. "Go find Dice, she'll cheer you up."

He smiled for real this time, his cheeks colored purple. "I think she's still in bed. Even I'm not used to getting up this early."

"Lucy isn't used to getting up early at all." They began walking down the hallway, both yawning.

"Neither of the girls are. They have to be the worst wakers on this planet." Liang bemoaned.

"Remember when Freefall almost threw Bushido out of the Tower?"

"Or when Dice rigged her door with water balloons?"

"And when I got soaked trying to wake her up the following morning?"

Liang laughed. "That was hilarious."

 **Beast Boy, Titans Tower**

He sat on the roof, gazing out over the city. His little confession time had been cut short with the arrival of the alien hordes landing in the city, and afterwards he had slipped away.

Beast Boy thought he had lost Zookeeper, and that the Doc would never find him again. Clearly, he was wrong.

Gar had to kill him, which was clear enough. He thought back to Phobia's vision, and his mind steeled. That was _not_ going to happen. Register had destroyed his family once before, and he could do it again. How, he didn't know. There was no way that Dr. Register could take on all five of them at once.

Beast Boy was so deep in thought that he yelped when someone shoved him off the roof. He morphed into a hawk, and soared upwards to see Raven smiling slightly, hip lightly cocked to one side.

He landed. "I thought you were sleeping off the Martian attack."

She shrugged. "I did." The wind snapped at her cloak, sending it billowing to the side. Her outfit had changed a bit in recent years, going from a leotard to a chiton (she'd taught him what that was) sliced away at the thighs. She wore tights and tanks underneath of course, but she still showed the same amount of skin, much to his pleasure. "Ready to experiment?"

Garfield noticed that she had books slung under her arm. Nearly every week, they pawed through her books together, looking up fantasy creatures that he could turn into. "Sure." He appreciated the distraction.

They sat in their usual spot, backs to the wind so the pages wouldn't ruffle. "We left off on Greek I think." She gently opened the book to the marked page.

Beast Boy moved a bit closer. "Ah crap, we left off on that thing?"

"The chimera? Of course, it's a complicated creature." Raven replied, casting him a sideways glance.

"Yeah." He muttered, leaning forward. "I'll have to think of multiple creatures at once." BB studied the picture, noting the amount of heads.

"Gar." She practically breathed. "It's not going to happen."

He jerked his head up and stared at her. "Uh, what?"

"Phobia's vision." Raven continued, her gaze locked in his. "It won't come true."

"Did you read my mind?" Rae's powers were getting stronger everyday; mind reading wasn't that far of a leap.

She rolled her eyes. "No. You haven't made a terrible joke since yesterday, I knew something was wrong."

Beast Boy got a chuckle out of that. "I know, I shouldn't dwell on it, but with Register showing up." He made a helpless gesture with his hands. "I can't help but worry."

Rae arched an eyebrow at him. "Have you forgotten all the things we've survived before?"

Beast Boy rubbed at the back of his neck. "What if something happens Rae? Something I can't stop."

She looked annoyed. "Stop being so maudlin." She parroted, frowning at him. "It's happened before. Remember when the world ended?"

"I'd rather not." Beast Boy muttered.

"We're still _here_ Gar." Raven reminded him. "In case you haven't noticed."

He stared out over the bay. "Rae?"

"Yes?"

"How do you drown a hipster?"

A groan of dismay.

"You throw him in the mainstream."

Raven sighed. "Glad to see you're back to you. And Gar?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything stupid."

He shook his head. "I have to get rid of him. I can't take any chances."

She was silent for a moment. "Remember Iceland? When I killed Rancid?"

"Well, technically, you didn't-"

"When my energies collided with the power Trigon was pushing through him, he exploded." Raven deadpanned.

"Don't tell me you lost sleep over him."

"I lost sleep over Iceland." She reminded him.

"Both of us did." He shifted. His ass was starting to ache from sitting on the hard roof.

"Gar, have you killed before?" Rae asked.

"I might've hit a few Brotherhood guys a bit too hard." Beast Boy shrugged, feeling a nasty roiling in his stomach.

"It doesn't feel good." Raven peered at her own hands like they were covered in blood. "I know we're the heroes, but ending someone's life almost makes you feel like a villain. Just think about that."

He rubbed his forehead, eyes closed in a grimace. "Rae, we've lost eight Titans since Paris."

"I know."

"I don't want to chisel more names on the memorial." He met her gaze. "Especially not yours."

"And I don't want to etch yours in either." She was glaring at him now. "So don't do anything stupid."

He frowned. "And what makes you think I'll do something stupid?"

"It's your specialty." She clapped the book shut. "Remember Vancouver? When I found you _dying_ under that damn bridge?" Raven's eyes might as well have been firing lasers. "What if he breaks your comm so I can't save you again?"

He was torn between the urge to kiss her, or to throttle her. "Don't start this bullshit." Beast Boy frowned. "I've saved your hide plenty."

"Do I have to count the number of times I've saved your life?" Raven growled.

Oh, man, there were so many things he could have said. "I haven't _died_ before. Do you have any idea how it felt to watch you…" He couldn't finish.

"Die?" Raven's voice was limp. "Be torn to shreds?"

"Did it hurt?" He blurted before he could stop himself. _Stupid, stupid_.

Their gazes locked. Raven's voice was soft. "It hurt to leave."

Beast Boy felt like there was sand in his mouth. "But we got you back."

"Because my life never ended, my magic shielded me enough so I could be brought back from the brink." Raven replied, she stared out into the horizon. "But you don't have magic."

"I heal fast."

"That's not enough."

"For you, it's not."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, mouth set in a tight line. She was still gazing out over the horizon.

"You're the only person to mention Vancouver this much. The rest of the team barely brings it up." Beast Boy said. He wasn't sure where he would go with this.

"So?" Raven said. She still wouldn't meet his eyes.

"So, I have to wonder, why would you worry more than them?"

She didn't say a word, her face began to redden.

"I mean, unless you got it _bad_ for me, but that can't be it, right Rae?" BB did his best to keep the nerves out of his voice.

Raven responded by melting into shadow, and slipping down into the Tower.

Next time, he'd bring flowers.

 **Sorry shippers. Maybe next chapter.**


	8. Hope and Dread

**Has it really only been four days? Felt like longer. Anyways, here's the next. Enjoy!**

 **Raven, Titans Tower**

It had been an hour since their talk on the roof, when she had come so close to spilling her heart out to him. She felt like an idiot, saying all that she had. Raven had thought they were so close, so close to…

She had to muster all her willpower so her room didn't explode. He'd mocked her. Or had he? Raven didn't know, her emotions were swirling like a typhoon, and she tried to rein them in.

 _Okay, breath, just think about this_. The more she replayed the scene in her head, the less it seemed that Gar had made some cheap sort of jab at her, and more like he was trying to overcome nerves. And the only reason he'd be nervous was if he…

Oh. She clamped down hard on her emotions again.

Raven shelved her books, and was steeling herself to go find Gar when there was a very familiar knock at her door. "Rae? You got a minute?"

She composed herself, and then strode over to the door. She opened it to see Gar standing on his hind legs as a massive green polar bear. Loosely clutched in a paw were a couple of flowers that looked like they had been torn from a planter. Dirt trailed stubbornly off the roots.

This was a new one. She had never seen him do this. "What are you-?" Raven shook her head in bewilderment. "Why a polar bear?"

If bears could smile, Gar did. "I'm a bear-a-gram, get it?"

She fought the grin, she truly did. "Okay, yeah, I get it." Raven could sense the nerves radiating off of him. "What did you want to talk about?"

Gar shifted awkwardly. "Uh, well. I'm sorry about the roof, if I said anything stupid."

"You did." Raven deadpanned. She wasn't going to make this easy for him. Besides, she enjoyed watching him squirm.

"Thanks for- the talk up there." He morphed back into human.

"No problem. What's with the flowers?"

"Uh, I panicked a little, I guess. Tore these out of a planter." Gar rubbed at his neck.

"Robin might bitch at you for that." And then make BB vacuum up the dirt he'd surely gotten on the carpet.

"Don't care. Rae, did you want to hit the town or something?" Gar asked, taking the smallest of steps forward, so that he was in the doorway.

"Who else is going?"

"No one. It would just be the two of us. We can go anywhere you want." Gar said.

"Are you-" Raven suddenly felt giddy. "-trying to take me on a date?" When he had been able to drag her out of the Tower before, they nearly always went with other people, or somewhere mundane, like the park or the supermarket.

"No, no!" Gar said hastily. "If I was doing that, I would've dyed some flowers blue, and gotten you a gift."

"Like what?" Raven asked, fighting to keep the emotion out of her expression.

"That would spoil the surprise." He smiled a little.

"Pick a place." Raven said, leaning against the frame of the door, her gaze slanted upwards, trained on his face. "Say that we _were_ going on a date. Where would you take me?"

"Depends on what mood you're in, and what time it is." Gar replied, confidence returning. He thought about it for a second. "Pick a book Rae, I'll take you to New Blue, it's good and quiet right now."

New Blue was a little secluded place in Jump City. It was her favorite restaurant, mostly because it was almost always quiet, and the seats were basically reading nooks.

He had her. "Let's go."

 **Static, Paris**

The alien invasion had provided one small benefit. The Cult of Blood had lashed out and joined the fighting in Paris. Now, Static and his squad were out to investigate the sudden appearance. He had the full team, all the other five members loping through the streets.

Anne was with him of course. They were in the car. Gnarkk was off leaping rooftops with Kole on his back. Typhoon and Wisp were prowling the sidewalks.

"Stat, we have a sighting." Wisp reported.

"Where?"

"South of Eiffel, street route 55."

Anne twisted the wheel, and they shot down a side street. "What did you see?"

"One of the Cult operatives the Guard ID'd during the attack yesterday. He's just strolling down the sidewalk."

"Got it. Kole, you catch that?"

"We got it. We're on our way."

Static closed up his com. "I hope this turns out well."

"No kidding. We already have aliens to worry about, and everything else." Mechmana grumbled. "Seems like our work is never done."

"Because it isn't." Static grinned. "Comes with the job."

"Still the best job I've ever had. Better than working at AutoZone." Anne smiled.

In this world, few things lasted. Heroes always did though, which was why the Titans would never die. His team had survived Iceland. They could survive anything else.

The Titans were more than job; it was about fighting for your family. Metahumans never fit in normal society. It just never happened. But here? It didn't matter how weird you were, you always had a place.

They hit 55 and Mechmana slowed the car down to a crawl. They searched the sidewalks, and soon found the man. He was walking quickly down the street, looking over his shoulder like he was nervous about being followed.

"Park. We can watch him till he turns the corner." Static ordered.

"No shit." She hated it when he got bossy on her. "Got anymore illuminating advice?"

"Don't nag so loud. He might hear you." She punched him on the arm, hard. "Ow!"

"Got what you deserved." Anne growled. She pulled on some sunglasses, Virgil leaned his head back and closed his eyes. They didn't want it to look like they were watching the cultist.

"AJ?"

"Yeah?"

"When we get back to Stockholm, do you want me to take you to that one restaurant you said you liked?"

"You mean I would take us to that restaurant we liked."

"Same difference." He grinned and leaned over the center console, his mouth perilously close to her neck.

"Virgil, focus."

"Just maintaining cover." He murmured. "Who would see this and think we're paying attention to anything else?"

"Well I can't really focus while you're doing that." Mechmana complained. Her breathing was coming a little heavier.

"I'll watch for the both of us then." And he did, or at least tried. He saw the man walk a little further, and then he disappeared. "Woah."

"What?" Anne's eyes opened again.

His comm crackled. "Hey Static." It was Wisp. "I dunno if you saw while you were sucking on Mana's neck, but the guy went down a manhole. Nic and I are after him."

"Right." Static felt blood rushing to his face. "We'll be there in a second."

"Don't you start on us Evie." Anne scolded, smiling all the same. "I still have that picture of you and Nic making out in the bay."

"I thought I burned that!"

"And I made a copy, so hush."

They hustled up the street, finding Ty and Wisp already lowering themselves into the sewer. Gnarkk and Kole were standing beside them.

Once they were all in, Mechmana flipped up her microphone and pointed to the right hand side. "He's down that way."

They hustled into the darkness, and Mana held up a hand. "Hang on, he's stopped." I'll go take a closer look." She activated her cloak, and disappeared. It was her latest invention, and quite effective. Though, it wasn't flawless, she appeared to the average human eye as a disturbance in the air, and any kind of thermal detection could still sniff her out.

She returned quickly, motioning them forward. They crept past mound after mound of bones, the empty eye sockets of the skulls watching them as they followed the man down the tunnel.

Eventually, he halted again, and they all heard a slight rumble, like stone sliding across stone. When they turned the corner, the man was gone.

"Hidden passageway." Static said, they palmed the walls, looking for a switch. Wisp found it by tugging on a leg bone. The wall slid, a solid block of bone shifting.

"This can't be good." Typhoon muttered.

Going down a stairway, they found themselves on a balcony, crouching behind the waist high edge as they heard sudden voices.

"Where's that coming from?" Mechmana breathed.

"Below us." Kole answered. Anne activated her cloak and peered over the wall.

"It's coming out of a doorway, a big one." She reported when she returned.

"Alright, let's go crash whatever party they're having." Static said gruffly.

They vaulted over the wall, and stacked up on the door. Now, they could hear clearly what was being said inside.

"My friends, my brothers and my sisters of Blood! We have been attacked, invaded by foul creatures from the stars. They mean to destroy us, to wipe us off this earth."

How could they possibly know that so soon? He would tell Nightwing ASAP, they had had a spy in their midst.

"They are prime to do us great harm, even more than the accursed Titans." There were boos and curses. "Do not worry my friends, we will deal with _them_ later, with the help of our new patron, Trigon the Terrible!"

Static had heard enough. He nudged Mechmana and gave her a wink. They both counted to five, and Static shouted. "Smoke and dagger!"

He spun around the edge of the doorway, and let loose a mass wave of electricity, akin to an EMP, though not as effective. It would disable anything electronic for a short amount of time.

And that was all the time they needed. Mechmana fired her smokes, and the canisters began spitting. Typhoon and Wisp both broke their bottles and rushed forward, currents of ice and water swirling about them Gnarkk roared and leapt into the crowd, laying them low with Kole.

Static dashed into the crowd. They were what he expected them to be. Simple cultists dressed in bloodred clothes. All trained soldiers, but more akin to Brotherhood grunts than Green Berets.

Long story short, they tore them to pieces. Typhoon and Wisp drowned them, Mechmana stunned them with her many gadgets, Gnarkk and Kole beat them into the floor. He saw Kole break many a jaw with a hard hand. Gnarkk was an unstoppable juggernaut, especially wearing the power mail Mechmana had made for him.

Static went for the leader, frying grunts on his way up. The leader noticed. He sent a burst of raw flame that was very similar to the flames Johnny Rancid had sent at them back in Iceland.

Fury roiling in his gut, he flew at him, crackling with so much energy he brushed the fire aside and slammed into the leader. They both hit the floor.

His feet fired, and the leader rose, sneering. "Foolish Titan." He blasted two more coils of fire at Static. "You think you can stop what's coming?"

Virgil threw up his powers again, barely keeping the fire back. "We always will." He threw a lance of lightning straight at the guy's face.

"Not this time." The man snarled. He pushed back his hood. "I am Harbinger, see this symbol?" There was a mark of Scath on his forehead. "It's a sign that your world will come to an end."

"We've heard that before." Static grumbled. He pushed back with more lightning, but he was getting tired. He'd expended much of his strength just yesterday.

Harbinger launched two more fireballs, Static rolled out of their way. He lashed back with another stab of lightning. It missed.

His foe struck once, twice, and the third time it knocked Static to the ground. Fire blazed. "Die in despair, Titan." Harbinger growled.

All at once there was a massive _kaphoom_ , and suddenly Harbinger seemed to be nearly drowning in raw sewage. The smell was horrible, and then it all froze.

"Good work you two." Static called as Ty and Wisp climbed up onto the platform. They looked exhausted. Below, the other half of the team was cleaning up.

In the ice, Harbinger glared, and disappeared, sinking into the floor.

"Dammit, now we'll have to track him down again." Wisp grumbled.

"That's not what I'm worried about." Static muttered, walking to the rear chamber. When he stepped through the door, he stopped in his tracks. There was blood everywhere, splashed on the altar, on the floor, covering the walls. But it was collected mostly near the black sketch of a Scath mark, glowing dully in the weak light.

 _I hate to ruin her day, but I'll need Raven's help with this._


	9. Eastern Strife

**Here's another. This one is a bit boring, but important all the same. Bad things are starting to happen to the Titans, old enemies are rearing their heads.**

 **And Guest, thank you very much for your reviews. They made my day.**

 **Beast Boy, Jump City**

So, he'd been lying, kind of. Had he more time, Beast Boy would have gotten her a gift, and asked her out. It was high time he took her somewhere nice.

Besides, he needed to make sense of what had happened on the roof, if she actually had the same feelings he did. Gar felt he had been damn close to solving the riddle, and getting the girl. But, she had melted into shadow, cons of trying to date a sorceress.

They'd flown downtown, and landed outside New Blue, slipping inside. The staff almost seemed to perk up once they saw the two Titans walk in, and they got to a table quick, a comfortable booth in a warm corner of the restaurant.

The waitress came by, giddy and nervous. They ordered a pizza, three quarters tofu for him.

"You're really going to eat all of that?" Raven asked skeptically.

"Yeah. I haven't eaten that much since the aliens showed up, and I was a polar bear for almost an hour." He shrugged. "My powers mess with my metabolism sometimes."

"Your powers really haven't stopped, have they?' Raven asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Yours haven't either." Beast Boy reminded her. "Remember last time Mumbo tried to rob the bank?"

A slow smile graced her lips. "That was funny."

When the Titans had arrived at the bank, Mumbo had been shoveling cash into his hat, the staff all bound with magic rope. They had leapt into action, Mumbo replying with a barrage of new tricks that had thrown the Titans back. Raven was not amused, and was anxious to get back to her book she had been reading in the Tower.

When Mumbo had whipped out his wand again, black tendrils had yanked it out of his hand, and a black claw had seized him by the ankle and hung him from the ceiling. Raven had daintily plucked his hat out of his hand, and slammed Mumbo down hard onto the floor.

"That must have been a damn good book."

"It was." Raven sipped her tea.

"I'm not looking forward to the alien invasion." Gar groaned, changing the subject.

"Neither am I. It's going to be much worse than the last one."

"Not if we get'em while they're still out in space." He replied. "You could get us there, or we could deploy from the base they got on the moon."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. We could pop a light show. Some kind of distraction. Then we jump em. They won't look for us. They've never faced Titans before." He grinned at her. "It'll be like fighting the lizard people, when we first met."

She stared at him. "You've put real thought into this."

Gar shrugged. "Me and Dick have been talking about it since the council. If it spares Earth any damage, then we consider it."

Raven's face was unreadable, as always. She gazed at him over the rim of her cup. "That's good of you."

"We're Titans." Beast Boy said simply. "It's what we do."

Raven smiled slightly. "I know, I've been doing it too."

"And you do it more than you give yourself credit for."

"I'm half demon Gar, that'll always count against me." She said dryly.

"How? You didn't choose that Rae." Beast Boy shot back. "Just like I didn't choose being green."

"Your powers didn't bring a trans-dimensional demon into the world twice." Raven replied, her expression clouding.

"And you've thrown him _back_ twice." He reminded her. "You're not responsible for your own birth."

Raven dropped her gaze to the table. "I know. I just feel- cursed."

"If we had to blame anyone for the three in Iceland, it would be Slade. If he hadn't interfered, nobody would've died, thanks to you." Gar leaned over the table. "Believe it how you want Rae, but the rest of us are still happy you were born."

Her gaze snapped back up, and she seemed to stare at him again. She opened her mouth, but then the pizza arrived. Things were quiet while Beast Boy tore his portion to shreds.

"Where are you putting all of that?" Raven asked.

"I dunno." He shrugged. "We work out way too much to get fat."

"True. At least you don't eat like you used to."

"Huh?" He folded up another slice. "What are you talking about?"

"You used to have the worst table manners I've ever seen."

"Mento's influence, I guess." Beast Boy shrugged. "Guy was so anal about them that I started eating like a slob whenever he wasn't around."

"Why'd you stay with the Doom Patrol for so long? You never looked happy when we helped them the first time." Raven took another draught of tea.

"They were my home. Until I struck out and us happened." Of course, by 'us' he meant the formation of the team so long ago. But he would rather have the 'us' meaning something else. With Terra, he'd felt like he was trying to grab a balloon that was floating away too quickly, like one wrong move would shatter any chance he had with her.

He and Raven had had their fights. Their friendship had seen its breaking points and survived. The next step forward seemed so natural, so right. He felt far too invested into her to walk away from this.

"I'm glad us happened." Raven said quietly. "I don't know what I would have done without the team when…"

"Yeah, I know." Beast Boy replied, trying to smooth his nerves. "I wish I could have found that penny." Her lucky coin had been lost in the rubble of the former shrine, and neither of them had been able to find it.

"Me too." Her eyes hadn't left his face in a while. "Would have been a nice souvenir."

"Yeah." Time to take a risk. "So, about the roof."

She set her cup down. "What about it?"

Dammit, was she really going to make him say it? "You know what. I said something and you kind of disappeared."

"Because you said something stupid." Raven reminded him.

"Ah." He felt like cotton filled his mouth.

"It sounded like you were making a terrible joke."

Gar found his voice again. "No, no! That wasn't what I was getting at!"

Her nonstop stare was starting to make him nervous. "Then what were you getting at?"

Hoo boy. "That, uh, there might be-" He couldn't meet her eyes. "-you know."

She arched an eyebrow at him, but her face was slowly reddening. "Yeah?"

"That you might be into me." He held her gaze. "And that I might feel the same about you."

Now she stared at the table. Her face was definitely getting bright. "Wouldn't that make this a date?"

"I guess so, but next time, I'll get you something nice, I promise." Next time, how could he be so sure of that?

"I'll hold you to that." Her lips upturned slightly. She looked back at him almost shyly.

"So you actually-?" Beast Boy trailed off.

She let him suffer for a bit, then answered. "Gar, can I enjoy our date first?" Rae leaned forward over the table. "Where are we going to go next?"

"Um." He willed his brain to work. "Remember that one clearing in the park?"

Her smile told him he'd gotten the answer right. "The one by the pond?"

"Yeah, that one. Where my secret admirer used to live."

"Tora." Raven remembered. Tora was Beast Boy's pet duck that had taken a massive dump on Nightwing's shoulder when they had gone into the park one day. BB had adopted her immediately.

"Yup, Rob swears he'll get rid of her if she craps on him again." He grinned, fighting back laughter. "Vic and I are taking bets on when she'll do it."

"Right." Raven stole one of Gar's slices and began picking the tofu off. He grabbed the last slice. "How much have you bet?"

"Couple hundred bucks. No biggie."

Raven frowned at him. "Our salaries aren't so good that you can just blow it away."

"I'm not blowing it away. I still got more than I need."

"You won't if you start gambling."

"Chill Rae, I'm not going to be a compulsive gambler." He pulled out some cash, and laid it flat on the table. "You ready to go?"

She nodded, but then frowned again. Raven plucked her buzzing comm off her hip, and flipped it open. "Raven." A pause, her features became taut and strained. "You found _what_?" She began to tremble ever so slightly. "Right, we'll be right there."

"What's up?"

"We need to go to Paris."

He groaned, but hastened to her side. "Again?"

She straightened quickly. "North found something bad."

Gar slung an arm around her shoulders, Rae didn't seem to mind. "How bad? You look shaken up."

"End of the world bad."

 **Aqualad, Porto**

"Do you really have to go Ock?" Mayley asked, her ears drooping.

Aqualad threw another thing into his bag. "I don't have a choice Marley. Atlantis needs me."

"Can't they need you later? The team needs you here."

"I'll be back."

"Yeah, but in half a year." She bemoaned. "You're going to leave me here so Mike can annoy the crap out of me?"

"You shouldn't talk about your husband so harshly you know." Aqualad jabbed. It was a running joke in the team that Mayley and Quickdraw had the fights of an old married couple.

"Hmph, can't wait until the old bastard dies then." She smirked for a second, and then went back to being upset. "You'll write or something?"

"Of course I will." Aqualad assured her. "I won't disappear."

"I can't believe we're losing almost half the team." Mayley grumbled. "You and Kilowatt leaving at the same time.

He had trouble believing it himself. Kilowatt had gotten the call a week ago, and was already gone. The enigmatic Chief had come over from Jump City Academy, a haven the Titans had established for metahumans.

"Does it matter? The Titans are flexible, we know how to bend under stress like this." Aqualad said idly.

"Any idea who's going to fill in for you?"

"Probably Bravo."

"Espana flamboyo?"

"Marley, don't." Aqualad glowered at her. "He's put up with enough catcalls."

She held up her hands beseechingly. "I was joking. Come on, look at me, you think I would discriminate?"

"I think you would say something you don't mean." Aqualad replied, cinching his bag shut. "Tell Mike I said the same thing." Mayley and Quickdraw weren't even in their twenties yet, and were still in that who-gives-a-shit college phase.

"We'll be nice Ock." She rolled her eyes. "You just stay safe down there with your splish splashing."

He would never get the last word with her. "I'll be back before you know it."

She kicked herself off the wall. "Sure." Mayley started as Bumblebee walked up beside her.

"When are you leaving?" Their leader asked.

"Soon." Aqualad replied. Bee had her arms crossed. "What's that look for?"

"What look?"

"Your conspiracy face." Mayley supplied.

Bumblebee sighed. "It can't be a coincidence, you and Kilowatt leaving."

He shrugged. "All I know is that I'm needed. My message didn't contain more than that."

"Neither did Kilowatt's." Bumblebee grumbled.

"Is there a point to this?"

"I just want to find out what's tearing my team apart." The black girl growled.

"The aliens?" Mayley proposed.

"Maybe, Atlantis might need my advice on that, but there's more." Aqualad shook his head. "They wouldn't call me in like this if I was just needed for counsel."

"Like how?" Bee asked.

"The last time they hailed me like this was when Trident was making trouble." He said. "And this time, it sounds worse." Aqualad slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Worse?" Mayley asked.

"Yes." He decided to tell. "They found something bad in one of the palaces in Atlantis."

"How bad?" Bumblebee asked.

He locked eyes with her. " _Iceland_ bad."

She paled.


	10. Etre Amoureux

**So, in light of Valentine's Day, this one is chock full of romance. Guys, buy her a gift now if you haven't already. Single guys, go and tell your wallet how much you love her. Or him, hell, I won't judge.**

 **Enjoy the latest!**

 **Risk, Great Victoria Desert**

Risk shivered. It was early in the morning; the sun was beginning to break over the horizon, setting the sands afire with rays.

Prysm was carrying him again, her arms gripping his armpits. Ordinarily that would've been a strain, but Risk had reinforced that part of his suit with thicker mesh, and Prysm almost never tired.

"See anything?" He shouted up at her.

She shook her head. "No. Are we sure they're here?"

"Positive. The last ping we got from Hot Spot's comm was out here." Risk replied, peering out over the sands. They had to find Joto. He'd been scouting out here with Argent when they had both disappeared without a trace. The following morning, the rest of the team had been attacked as they searched for their missing fellows. They'd taken Donna to somewhere unknown.

Titans West was to the north, also searching. Arsenal had come immediately when Risk had sent up the distress call, Liang teleporting the team to their camp. They had been looking all day, and Risk was starting to worry he'd never see his teammates again.

"There!" Prysm cried.

Cody could see it as well, a bunker lodged in the sand, painted the rusty red of the desert so that it blended in perfectly. His eyes had drifted right over it. "Arsenal, lock on to us! We found it!"

Then things went to shit, as per usual. Turrets popped out the top, and began firing blasts. Prysm shouted and dropped Risk to the sand. Atomic was flying forward fast, his fist extended towards Pri. She caught him by the wrist and slammed him down into the sand. The ensuing explosion threw up a small sandstorm, and Risk narrowly avoided a swinging fist from Tank.

Risk snapped a kick into the villain's chin, and he flinched, head going back. Cody followed with two more punches, fierce swipes that clocked him on the chin.

Tank's reply was a lazy uppercut that would have shattered Risk's skull had he not jumped backwards. As it was, Cody felt an awful pain in his back, and slumped to the sand, the breath leaving his body.

Tank laughed in contempt. A knife was put at his throat. Stick. She had crept up behind him.

"Lucky lucky you Risk." She whispered into his ear. "Any other time, I would be allowed to kill you and your friend. But the boss needs to _talk_ with you."

A blast. Stick howled as she was thrown away from him. Risk looked up to see Freefall battering Tank into the sand. To his left, Liang was crossing swords with Stick.

The turrets exploded, Risk assumed Arsenal was responsible for that. Atomic fled back towards the bunker with Prysm on his heels. Stick leapt backwards to stand beside Tank. Dice fired three shots, all bounced right off Tank's forehead.

Wraith rose from the sands in her ghostly aspect, and then pulled Stick and Tank downward, returning to the depths of the bunker.

Risk tried to rise, but staggered back to his hands and knees. He had a sudden feeling of wetness sliding down his back. Prysm was suddenly by his side, her hands light as feathers on his skin.

"God dammit Cody." She scolded. Pain flared. "How'd you get a knife back there?"

"How deep is it?"

"Not very. Your suit stopped it for the most part."

Arsenal knelt by Risk's side, feeling his forehead. Cody raised his head a little. "What's up doc?"

"Nothing good." Roy muttered. He peered closely at Cody's eyes. "Prysm, check the blade."

"It's got- oh no." Pri suddenly sounded very worried. "Don't move Cody."

Arsenal gestured to someone, and Pri was suddenly by Arsenal. He whispered into her ear, and she nodded.

Risk was a bit alarmed, to say the least. "What's going on?"

"Calm down, it's fine." Pri soothed. Her golden eyes came closer to his.

"Uh, what was on the knife?"

"Nothing." She assured him, green hand soft on his cheek. Most people thought Prysm felt like rock, hard and unforgiving. The reality was quite different.

"Pri, seriously what-" She cut him off in the most efficient way possible, by crashing her lips onto his.

 _Woah._

They separated, and Risk stared at her.

And then someone yanked the knife out. "Ow! Son of a _bitch_! That hurt." The pain passed as someone pressed medicine-soaked gauze onto the wound, and bound it by pushing medical tape onto his skin.

"Better?" Prysm asked.

"Yeah." He rose, and twisted timidly. "Let's go."

They dashed towards the bunker, and halted. A slight figure in desert camouflage had dropped in front of the doors. The woman wore a wrap about her head. She slapped something to the doors, blew a kiss in the direction of their group, and sprinted away.

"Um…" Dice said, eyebrow arched. "What was th-."

The bundle she had placed exploded, ripping a massive hole in the metal doors.

"That'll do." Risk grinned.

"Let's go." Arsenal said gruffly. He looked entirely unfazed by the appearance of the mysterious woman.

"We shouldn't chase her down?" Prysm asked.

Roy shrugged. "I see no reason we should."

They pressed into the bunker, waiting a moment so their eyes could adjust to the light. The first room was large and bare. There could have been a circus in there and they wouldn't have cared. All they had on their minds was the missing Titans.

The only way down was the elevator. "They would have locked it." Freefall said.

"Right. Prysm, how many people could you carry?" Arsenal asked.

"If someone got on my back, three." She answered.

"Good. You and Freefall are on lift duty. Let's move."

Risk hopped on Prysm's back. "So, uh, we'll talk later right?" He whispered.

She turned her head and gave him a smile. "Of course."

Freefall carried Arsenal and Bushido, Prysm the rest. They descended three floors, and came out in a long hallway. They hustled to the end, and Freefall punched the door down.

The sight was something else. A white room that stank of antiseptic and blood.

"This can't be good." Dice muttered. They bolted inward, ready for a fight. None was forthcoming. They blitzed past hung sheets and bloody beds.

Risk was worried, to say the least. The rest of the Titans looked just as frightened. Three of his teammates were in what looked like a mad scientist's hellhole.

"They couldn't have evacuated this fast." Arsenal growled.

"We must be on the wrong floor." Risk said as they hit a wall.

They flew upwards, and could hear shouting when they landed. Dashing forward, they were met with an odd sight. Donna was fiercely fighting both Tank and Atomic, her fists glowing with power as she fought off both men.

The two Cabal metas turned tail and ran when they spotted the group bearing down on them. Prysm and Donna sped them on their way by firing more blasts at them. A roaring wall of flame burst out of the tunnel, but a wall of red plasma slammed it back.

Argent slumped to the floor, exhausted. Risk now noticed the three cages set against the wall, and that Hot Spot was lying unmoving by Argent's side. Donna went to Argent, dragging her feet.

The Titans were around their three brethren in a flash, asking questions, offering water, painkillers.

Donna raised a hand to quell the talk. Her eyes were closed. "One at a time please."

Arsenal took charge. "Are you hurt? Any of you?"

Argent looked up from where she was tending Hot Spot. "Joto won't wake up." Tears were rolling smoothly down her face, and she looked ragged, beaten.

Dice went to Hot Spot and checked his vitals. Bushido aided her. Both their expressions were grim. Risk's heart sank.

"Lucy?" Arsenal asked.

She met his gaze. "He's alive, barely. We need to get him to a med bay."

"Donna, Argent, are either of you hurt?" Arsenal asked.

The leader of Titans South shook her head. "They put me under some kind of- radiation fission I guess, and-" She inspected her fist as energy crackled over her knuckles. "I'm tired."

Argent rubbed her temple. "They made me use my powers, make all kinds of shapes." She seemed sick. "Pushed me beyond my limits."

"And Joto?" Risk asked as he leaned over his friend.

"I don't know. They took him away for hours. He hasn't woken up since." Argent said as she pressed a cloth to his forehead.

"Right. Liang, you think you could warp us to Sydney?" Roy asked.

The alien nodded. "We'd have to get to the surface first."

"Yeah. I know." Arsenal rose. "Let's get the hell out of here."

The three exhausted Titans were helped up, and guided gently to the elevator shaft. Donna and Argent were still able to fly, albeit slowly. Freefall and Prysm helped them upwards, then came back down for Joto, and finally for the rest of the group.

Once they were all assembled under the open sky, Liang bade them close, and took a deep breath. He began to glow, as if absorbing the sun's rays. Then, with one swift movement, he cast his black cloak over them all.

Risk had the sudden sensation of flying, and the next thing he knew, they were on the roof of South Tower. They hustled inside, getting Donna, Argent, and Joto into the med bay. Quickly, Hot Spot was put into a bed and hooked up to life monitors. Donna fell into the sheets and fell asleep immediately. Argent did the same, seemingly glad that her bed was beside Joto's.

"We should leave a watch." Arsenal said. He looked around at the group. "Who-"

"I'll-" Prysm and Risk said at the same time. They shared a weary grin as they finished their sentences together. "-stay."

Roy grinned. "Right."

Dice stretched. "I dunno about you guys, but I'm starving. Either of you mind if we poke around in the fridge?"

Risk shook his head. "Not at all, but whatever you make, make extra. I'm hungry too."

"We all are." Freefall added. Her mouth quirked in a rare smile.

"Alright, one feast, coming right up." Dice chirped. She walked out and down the hall. The rest of West followed, leaving Prysm and Risk alone.

He slumped into a chair. "This is a nightmare."

"It's not all that bad. I'm only worried about Joto. We don't know what those fiends did to him." She sat beside him.

"And Donna? You saw the whole glowy thing right?" Risk watched their leader sleep soundly. "Radiation is bad, it's too unpredictable, especially with people like us."

"Or maybe she unlocked more of her powers." Prysm said hopefully.

"But at what price?" Risk wondered darkly.

"We don't even know if that's actually what they did. You saw how tired she was. She may have been mistaken." She replied.

"I doubt it." Risk kneaded his forehead with his fingers. "So, about that kiss."

"You liked it too." Prysm smiled. "You had that look on your face."

"What look?"

"The same one you got when Joto bought you that really nice snowboard."

Risk found he couldn't meet his eyes. "So, what now?"

"Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't say no to a date." Prysm chirped.

Cody nodded. "Okay. Why-" He shook his head in bewilderment. "Why are we talking about this now?"

"Every storm has a silver lining. I'm just trying to find it."

 **Beast Boy, Titans Tower**

He found her by the edge of the island, staring out over the water. Their positions were exactly the opposite of what had been years ago, after his first experience with the Beast.

Gar sat down next to her. "Waiting for the sunset?"

They had found dark stuff in Paris, several more rooms slicked with blood and covered with marks of Scath, all glowing faintly.

Trigon was coming back.

"I'm leaving." Raven said, without emotion.

"Any particular reason?"

"To stop Trigon, at the source." Raven deadpanned, her jaw was clenched.

"What, like his home dimension? With all the fire and crap?"

She nodded.

"Isn't he, you know, kind of immortal there? As in unkillable?" Beast Boy asked.

"No one knows for sure."

"Because no one has survived?"

She nodded.

"Rae, you're the most powerful metahuman on the planet, and both times, you defeated Trigon when he was at his _weakest_." Beast Boy reminded her. "If you go down there on his turf, I'll lose you, and that's not something I'm going to let happen."

"What other option do I have?"

"Stay here. We'll be ready when he shows up. _If_ he shows up. How the hell is he even going to get here?"

"Trigon always finds a way." Raven said. She shivered, and Gar couldn't resist getting an arm around her.

"And we always find a way to curb stomp him." He promised.

"And what will I lose this time?" Raven sounded absolutely miserable. "You, the team, another team of Titans. What will be the price?"

"No price, and this time, we'll kick his clip clopping ass so hard he won't ever poke his head out again." But even he wasn't sure. All the signs in Paris had been very foreboding.

"What if I'm not strong enough? What if- god dammit. Look around us Gar!" Raven almost shouted, suddenly whipping around to face him. "The Brotherhood, the aliens, and now _him_!"

"Rae." Gar met her eyes squarely. They were full of anger and worry. "We're stronger now, and we have friends. We won't fall, we're Titans."

"Titans have fallen before." Her hand was clasping his arm tightly. "What if I lose one of you?"

Gar gave that a thought. Titans _had_ fallen before. The small stone obelisk with the names proved that, and now they were facing two things that could rip their world asunder and kill them all. Gar could lose everything, everyone, in one big disaster.

He looked at Rae, gazing on her beautiful face, and decided that if they were going to die, then he would make the most of these days.

Her face was close to his, so it was all too simple to lunge forward, and kiss her right on the mouth.

Gar expected shouting, a slap, red eyes, and a weeks worth of apologies. She wasn't a very touchy feely person, even when he was damn sure she was into him.

So it was a very nice surprise when she wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him back.

 _Ho…lee…shit._ He grinned into the lip lock, feeling giddier than he ever had before.

 _PHOOM_! The massive geyser that erupted behind them broke the kiss, Raven's hold over her powers slipping. They both stared at each other as the water calmed.

"So, uh, was that- stupid?" Gar asked sheepishly.

Her eyes glittered, and her mouth quirked upwards in a smile. "Gar, that was the _smartest_ idea you've ever had."

And with that, he leaned in again.


	11. War's Eve

**I'm back. Sorry for the delay. Got caught up in some personal issues. Regardless, enjoy the latest!**

 **Red X, Philadelphia**

Sunsets were a good time to check back, to do a review. And today had been a good day. He tapped his fingers on the bag of loot he'd stolen from the bank. X was willing to bet that the Titans would be on their way soon.

But that didn't matter. The Titans were busy with other things, and so was Red X. He had tired of pulling his stunts alone, and decided that he wanted a team, one full of selfish thieves like himself. It would be much more exciting.

And with more people, meant bigger hauls. He meant to collect some two or three more metahumans. Any more and the pay would decline far too much for his liking.

"You know, there's a better way to contact me than drawing on the roof like this." Blackfire drawled as she stepped up beside him.

"Want to give me an example?"

"No. I want to know why you called." Her voice was the same as always, the demure purr that drove men nuts.

"Because I have a job offer you're going to like." X replied.

"What makes you think I'm interested?"

"If you want to screw with the Titans-"

"Really?" Blackfire seemed much more interested now. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Nothing directly, but robbing banks under their noses seems like fun." He shrugged. "I guessed you'd like to take one or two shots at them."

"One in particular." Blackfire said flatly. "I'm in."

"Good to hear." X replied, leaning back on the roof. "I hope you play well with others. You're not the only one I've sent mail to."

"Who else?"

"Some cat chick, and a Batman fanboy." He answered.

"That doesn't tell me anything."

"Good."

 **Risk, Titans South Tower**

He and Prysm had slept on the floor of the infirmary. Titans West had left last night after cooking a large dinner for everybody. Dice made them both promise to call them if things got worse.

Risk was in the kitchen making waffles, the Titan specialty. You weren't a Titan until you learned how to make them.

He turned to the sound of the door opening, expecting to see Prysm, but it was Donna who walked in, dressed in a tank and sweats. She slumped at the island, rubbing at her eyes tiredly.

"Morning." Risk flipped a waffle on a plate and slid it across the granite to her. "Feeling better?"

Donna looked up at him with exhausted eyes. "Different." She clarified, picking at her breakfast.

H sat down at the table with her. "You'll have to be more specific."

A spark of energy ran up Donna's finger. "Older, if that makes any sense." She confessed. "I don't know what they did to me. They put some sort of- lamp, in my cell and left it there."

"So it wasn't radiation?" Risk asked, feeling relieved.

"I don't know." Donna shrugged. "Whatever it was, it unlocked this." She opened her hand, and smoky tracers of light trailed off her palm. It was golden in color, like sunlight, and Risk felt warmth on his face.

"Is it- bad?" He inquired. It didn't seem bad, but they were superheroes, the worst things seemed the best at first.

"No. I can control it, and it doesn't feel strange. Whatever they put me under made this come out." Donna explained. "It's like waking up in the morning to find you've gotten taller."

Risk nodded. "So you're going to be alright."

She smiled. "Yes Cody, I'll be fine. I'm more worried about Hot Spot."

"So am I. How's Argent?" Risk asked.

"Tired, worried about Joto." Donna answered, ripping into her waffle.

"He still hasn't woken up?" It was a stupid question. Risk would know if Joto had awaken.

Donna shook her head in despair. "I'm scared. I don't know what happened to him, what the Cabal did to force him into that. Sure we have IVs in him, but who knows if we'll ever get him back?"

Damn, you knew it was bad when _Donna_ was maudlin like this. "I hope we get him back." Risk said. "I don't want to lose my closest friend."

"Nor do I." She peered up at him with the ghost of a smile. "By the way, Prysm told me about a certain something."

"Uh." Why was it so hot in this room? "We're still talking about it."

"Cody." Her voice had become very stern. _Uh oh_. "Don't you dare break her heart."

Risk slumped into a chair. "Please do not do this to me. We're talking about this Donna."

"Well, do you like her?" Donna asked, leaning over the table.

Risk felt besieged. "I'm not sure."

"Cody, she's crazy for you." Donna said firmly. "If you're going to deny her, please do it gently."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know if I _want_ to deny her. I mean- I'm just not sure yet Donna." Risk rubbed his forehead. "We haven't had much time to talk."

"Alright. I'm going to check on the rest of the team." Donna said, scraping her chair back

"Cool, I'll finish making breakfast and take it over." Risk rose and went back to the kitchen, grabbing his chef's hat along the way.

 **Nightwing, Jump City**

Dick had no idea why Beast Boy had looked so frustrated when Nightwing had slammed a fist into the emergency button. A team of meta villains including the likes of Mammoth and Punk Rocket had appeared in Sacramento and started wreaking havoc.

"Load up, we gotta hit this one fast. Raven, you want to do the honors?"

Her mouth was set in a slight frown. "Sure."

Nightwing suppressed a groan. They'd been fighting again. Raven swept her cloak over them and they melted into darkness. At this point though, it was akin to throwing a warm blanket over one's head to hide from the monsters.

They landed on a rooftop in time to hear the screams. Running to the lip of the roof, they peered over to see the team of villains running wild down the street.

"Titans, go!"

Cyborg vaulted over the edge, firing a sonic blast. Star threw down a hail of bolts. The team below scattered, taking cover and firing back. Punk threw up a wave, Gizmo fired bursts.

It was all he had time to process as Raven lowered him quickly to the pavement. Beast Boy morphed in midair, crashing down on Mammoth as a bear, then flying at a woman Nightwing didn't recognize.

As Garfield went at her, she crystalized. "Nemesis! Form up!"

They tried. Cyborg blasted Gizmo into the pavement. Raven pressed Punk Rocket against a wall, Starfire rained bolts on Angel, who had tried to swoop down on Beast Boy.

Nightwing went for Mammoth, loosing his fury in a storm of punches and kicks. The big man replied with clumsy swings. These villains hadn't gotten any better, and Nightwing snapped out another kick that caught Mammoth on the chin.

A sonic cannon blast knocked the villain to the pavement, and Nightwing kicked him one last time. The big man slumped, beaten.

The crystal woman tried to run forward, but Beast Boy got in her way again, and Raven slammed her to the ground. Cyborg had Gizmo by the collar, and Starfire was slinging bolts at Punk and Angel. The two flying villains were fleeing, quickly disappearing over the rooftops.

"Raven, Starfire, get after them." Nightwing ordered, seeing the Guard appearing down the street. The two women nodded, and took off in pursuit.

As he supervised, helping the Guard load the criminals into the trucks, he saw something that chilled his blood.

A flash of black and orange.

Nightwing bolted towards the alley without hesitation, ignoring the shouts of Beast Boy and Cyborg. His mind was overridden with memories of contemptuous, masked remarks, and bodies glowing brightly orange.

He pulled a turn on the sidewalk, and sprinted down the alley, seeing the Slade bot standing at the end of it. When he came close, the bot fled, jumping upwards onto a fire escape.

Feeling like a cat chasing a mouse, Nightwing went on in pursuit, coming painfully close to catching him. There was a buzzing about his ears. Why would Slade reappear now? He'd been completely silent since he had tried to roll a snowball down on Jump City, forcing a meta girl named Evie to form it. Whatever the reason was for this latest intrusion, Dick was determined to find out.

The bot finally halted, skidding to a halt as two of its fellows emerged from the shadows of a water tower. Dick didn't hesitate, flying at the one in the center, kicking it in the face, rebounding and seizing another by the throat. He slammed the bot down so hard that it's neck snapped.

The other two went at him, but Nightwing snapped a kick into one, blocking the other with his forearm. One, two, three punches into the one that remained. Another rose, but he whipped his staff free, and hit the damn thing so hard that its head came off.

The last stayed down, and when Nightwing approached, its face split open, a screen emerged, and a familiar figure appeared. "Hello _Robin_."

"Slade." Dick growled. "What do you want?"

"You know I cannot answer that question." Slade replied.

"Then why reveal yourself?" Nightwing demanded.

"To get your attention." Slade said menacingly.

"You have it." Dick made an effort to unclench his jaw.

"The number of Micoran capital ships is higher than you know. There are twelve, in addition to the one hundred and twenty support ships." Slade said. "Your plan is good, but it lacks sophistication."

"You don't know our plan."

"A computer virus. I have my sources Robin." Slade said with a hint of satisfaction.

Nightwing ground his teeth. "Fine then. What are we lacking?"

"A virus." Slade said simply. "But I can provide that."

"And why should I trust anything that you give me?"

"You wound me Robin." Slade said. "It is in my better interests that we all survive this little invasion, and your Titans are essential to seeing it fail."

"It will fail."

"I have no doubt." Slade replied quickly. "If your team could defeat me so many times, then surely this invasion will be nothing."

Nightwing's mind worked furiously. What was Slade saying?

The villain continued. "Though, I do regret to inform you that I will still send another gift. One that will keep you and your friends sharp."

Nightwing exhaled. "Good to know." And with that, he slammed a fist into the screen. He stood, and walked back down the alley to find Cyborg and Beast Boy waiting for him.

"Dude, what gives?" Garfield asked, eyebrows raised.

"Slade."

Both of his teammates exchanged a glance like- _uh oh_. "Did you get him?" Beast Boy asked warily.

"No, he just dropped a message off."

"What kind of message?" Cy asked.

"He said there's something coming our way." Nightwing growled.

"I hope it's another snowball." Cyborg remarked. "We had no trouble with that."

Starfire and Raven drifted downwards. "We left the villains with the police."

"What's with you?" Raven asked. "You look tense."

Beast Boy grabbed her by the arm, tugged her down, and whispered in her ear. Raven sighed. "Breath Dick, Slade's just hot air."

"I'm more concerned about his gift." Nightwing grumbled. Raven was the only Titan he took copious amounts of shit from. "What if the he virus promised attacks us instead of the aliens?"

"Or takes the ships for himself." Starfire added. "Slade would not give us something for free."

"What exactly did Slade tell you man?" Cyborg asked.

He told them, word for word.

"Twelve capital ships. That is indeed troubling." Starfire said in a low tone.

"We can even the odds." Beast Boy added lazily. "Superman could probably take down three by himself."

"And Liang spoke to me yesterday, promised support from his people." Nightwing grumbled. "I hope this'll be enough."

"It will be." Cyborg grunted. "I say we make Slade's virus a last ditch option."

"I agree. I just wish I knew what he was planning for after the invasion." Nightwing bemoaned.

"I wish he had stayed dead." Raven growled.

"I disagree." Beast Boy said. That turned all of their heads. Garfield grinned at their dark friend. "We wouldn't have gotten you back otherwise."

She smiled at him, pulling her cowl back into place, but Nightwing could just make out a hint of pink in her cheeks.

"Speaking of." Dick decided to not ask for now. "Don't worry Raven, when Trigon comes back, we'll return him to where he belongs."

Starfire added her support. "Yes friend, we will not allow him to triumph."

"Third time's the charm. If we hit him hard enough, he won't come back." Vic grunted.

Raven appeared to relax a little. "Thanks." They knew she meant it. "By the way, the cops are putting our prisoners in jail, so we're free to go whenever you like."

"Not an option. Red X was sighted in Phillie, robbing a bank." Nightwing said as he studied his comm. "We need to be there."

Raven obliged, throwing them all in darkness yet again.


	12. Arch-Titans

**I am very sorry for such a delay. Loss of wi fi, writers block, and other issues all combined to make some sort of mental molasses. That aside, meet the Arch-Titans, and enjoy the chapter!**

 **And of course, if you have any questions/concerns, PM me or leave a review.**

 **Raven, Location Unknown**

As it turned out, X hadn't been making any sort of disturbance in Philly at all. What they had found was a rigged warehouse that had quickly filled with a virulent knockout gas, so potent that it had downed them in less than a minute.

"You have got to be _fucking_ kidding me!" Gar exclaimed as he struggled in his chair.

"Beast Boy. Calm down, you're not helping." But Nightwing was fighting his bonds as well.

"Calm _down_? I don't want to be mind fucked again!" Beast Boy tried a dozen different transformations.

"Cut it out. I'm getting tired just watching you." Raven complained, feeling panic gather in her stomach. She tried a splitting spell, and only succeeded in making a lightshow.

"Hello my duckies!"

"Let me go you British prick!" Gar shouted. Mad Mod stood before them, grinning madly. It only added insult to injury that it looked like they were in his illusionary school. _Again_.

"Do us all a favor Mod. Let us go so we can throw you in jail." Raven said in her usual tone.

"I'm not going back to jail love." He leaned down over her with a nasty sneer. "And you Titans aren't going anywhere."

"Fuck off Mod." Gar growled.

"Typical young hooligans." Mod slammed his gem underneath Gar's nose, white light making him wince. "Maybe I ought to stick a hypno screen in front of you eh? Watch your pea brain melt out your ears?"

Again, Raven lashed out with her powers, anger boiling. The chair groaned. Then she suddenly felt nothing, her powers suddenly failing like the night she had turned the Tower into a haunted house.

But this was worse. She felt sick, cold, and lightning bolts of pain fired through her nerves. Raven shivered. This was horrible, she felt so _violated_. Someone or something had sent a hand where she thought no one could reach.

Next to her, Gar looked just as bad. He was pale and shaking. A noise to her right told her that Starfire was experiencing the same thing.

"Mod, stand down. We can't have our guests dying. That would be defying orders." Through the haze of pain, Raven could see five people coming down the stairs. Three of them were floating idly. They came close, Mad Mod backed off. The man who had spoken wore armor exactly like Slade's, except he had both his eyes, and wore all silver.

"Hello Titans Central." Silver said menacingly. "My name is Ravager, Slade's newest apprentice."

"I guessed as much." Nightwing said in a very pissy tone of voice. "And if you don't stop hurting my friends, I'm going to break your neck."

Ravager laughed coldly. "Anathema, halt."

The floating woman beside him smiled, and walked straight up to Raven. "I would, but unless you want this one to break her chair…"

Through the haze of pain, Raven gave her the finger, and Anathema replied with pumping more power into her bonds, making Raven bite her lip so hard she drew blood.

" _Enough_." Gar growled. It turned into a roar as he went Beast. Anathema turned on him, clenching her hand into a fist. Gar de-morphed, screaming an expletive.

"Dirty cowards!" Nightwing shouted, furious. "Is this how you fight Ravager? You pathetic-"

"Ana, enough!' Ravager barked. "Keep their powers suppressed, nothing more."

The woman in black and red complied. The pain faded, though her powers were still restricted. Raven panted as her strength returned, she cast a worried glance over to Gar. He was breathing just as hard, and looked angry enough to commit murder.

Ravager approached Nightwing slowly, and then slugged him across the face. Ignoring Starfire's angry Tamaranean. " _That_ , Nightwing, is how I fight. If I didn't have opposing orders, I would cut all of your throats right now, but you're still needed for a little while."

"You band of assholes have a name?" Beast Boy growled.

"We are the Arch-Titans, your replacements in a matter of speaking." Ravager continued. "And the worst villains you'll ever face, hand-picked by the best villain on Earth."

"Rah rah. I've heard ice cream salesmen give more menacing speeches than that." Gar shot back. "Now get me out of this chair so I can kick your ass."

Raven was glad for Gar's presence. His unwavering confidence helped them all.

There was a throaty laugh from a man dressed in a suit, of all things. "We would all like to see you try shapeshifter."

"Then get me out of this cha- _urgh_!" He winced as Anathema sent more pain his way.

" _Stop it_!" Raven's self control snapped. Her powers flared, and winked out as Ana shut her down again. She fought hard against her bonds.

Then things went to shit, for the villains this time. Nightwing had been picking away at his chair somehow, and he broke one of his handholds with a sudden _snap_.

"Mod, drop them, _now_!" Ravager roared. Beneath her, the floor disappeared, and Raven dropped into darkness.

She didn't fall far. Once Anathema's hold over the chair was gone, Raven broke the strained bonds like they were made of matchwood. It hit the floor in pieces.

Raven turned round slowly, doing a 360. She was in a large white room, with balconies ringing round above her. The floor was decked with carpet. She was alone; none of the team had dropped with her.

Divide and conquer. Raven called her soul-self forth and out, cloaking herself in magic and preparing to go through the wall. She was determined to find her friends, and Gar.

Just as her fingertips were touching the smooth paleness, a body slammed into her back. Familiar pain screamed through her body, and her powers were gone again. She didn't give Anathema the satisfaction of uttering any sounds of pain. Raven had felt worse than this.

"You Titans are awful slippery." Ana whispered into her ear as they hit the balcony. Her arm was around Raven's neck, both her hands channeling pain, and draining Raven dry.

"Let. Go." Raven hissed. She tried to reach her powers, tried to summon her magic, and again failed.

"Not likely." Anathema purred. "I've _never_ felt power like yours, demon spawn." She wrenched Raven's hair back, hard. "And it's _delicious_. If I could have this, I could rule the world."

Raven was getting tunnel vision. She could feel herself being torn. It was like the end of the world, but slower. Gasps of pain spilled out. Her eyes closed, she was drowning in agony.

"Now, now." Anathema taunted. "Don't die on me. I know it must hurt, ripping you in two at your base nature. Your little green boy toy didn't seem to like it much either."

Raven bucked, trying to throw Anathema off as her hold loosened just a little. How did the villain know? The rest of their team didn't even know.

"You're not the only empath here you know." She just wouldn't shut up. "Slade picked every one of us to kill one of you."

"You won't." It was all Raven could get out.

"Won't I?" Anathema pressed a knife to Raven's pale throat. "I could. And I would."

"You need me." Raven bit back. It hurt to speak, but she had to keep Anathema talking, keep her distracted. She had the beginnings of a plan.

"Why would I need you?" The pain receded some more. Thema was becoming curious, and arrogant.

"To rule the world, remember?" Raven grunted.

"And going with this theme, I'd assume you want me to spare your beloved shapeshifter?"

"Please." Raven pleaded, pushing her emotions down hard so that Anathema couldn't sense her trickery.

Anathema paused. "I don't have to cut a deal with you. I could put you in another chair."

"I'd rather _not_." Raven bucked one more time, slamming her elbow into Anathema's chin. Raven twisted again, and slammed her knuckles into Ana's nose.

The villain fell back, stunned, and Raven felt her powers come rushing back. Before Anathema could grab her again, Raven dove into the wall, making her escape.

There was no way she could defeat Anathema on her own. She would have to find one of her teammates to help.

 **Cyborg, Unknown Location**

His chair broke into pieces when it hit the floor. Victor shrugged off the fragments and climbed to his feet. He had no damage at all. Whatever that Asian woman had done to Star, BB, and Raven hadn't affected him or Nightwing in the slightest.

Regardless, Vic needed to get up there. He'd been close to breaking his chair up there, only a few seconds behind Dick. Nightwing was alone.

Cyborg activated his cannon. He was ready to blast through this place if he had to.

But suddenly his body seized and stiffened. Cyborg fell to the ground with a dull _clunk_.

"You aren't going anywhere metal man." It was one of the Arch. A man in silver with his hand stretched out towards Cyborg.

A metal bender. Great. "We'll see about that." Vic growled. He willed one of his programs to life. The Titans had encountered metal benders before. Their powers were rooted in magnetism, and his program would halt that right quick.

It was a program that created a very unique form of energy field around his metallic body. The end result was that the silver clad Meta went flying at Cyborg, and then went into the wall with a single punch.

"Give up Cyborg." His foe rose from the ruin of the wall. "You won't win, we will-."

How many times had they heard that? "I'm just gonna cut you off, whoever you are."

"The name is Magnos, master of metal."

"That why I'm kicking your ass?" Victor was tired of this. The bragging and the bullshit. No matter how hard the Titans worked, the villains kept coming.

Magnos charged at him again. Cyborg re-polarized. The villain went into the wall.

"Just give up man. I'm getting hungry."

Magnos locked Cy up again, and flew towards him. This time, Magnos landed his punches, releasing his hold over Cy to trade blows.

In the end, Magnos retreated, growling. Vic was worried. He could only activate his polarity program so many times. He was running out of uses.

Just as Magnos prepared to come at Cyborg again, a staircase flattened him. Cy looked to his left to see Raven flying at him hard and fast. She must have come in unnoticed. Anathema was on her heels.

He primed his cannon. "Raven, move!"

She flew downwards, giving him a clear shot. Anathema squawked in dismay as the blast sent her careening into the wall, but she was coming back at them in a second. Magnos sent the staircase flying, and rose, looking very pissed off.

"I'll take the metal head." Raven said, tendrils of black energy drifting lazily.

"Sounds good." Cyborg primed his cannon again.

When the two villains charged again, they swapped. Cy firing another blast at Anathema, Raven hitting Magnos in the face with a panel, she followed up by chucking him across the room.

Anathema ducked his sonic burst, and made for Raven, sprinting at her. Cyborg fired his hand off, grabbing Ana by the scruff of her neck and yanking her backwards to the floor.

He dashed forward, determined to take Anathema down. He had seen the effect she had on Star, Raven, and BB. Cyborg wasn't allowing that to happen again.

But as he closed on Anathema, she gave him an evil grin and sank into the floor. "Raven, down and out!" Vic shouted. Their code for villain-went-into-the-floor-watch-your-ass. Raven immediately kicked off, throwing more crap onto Magnos and flying towards Cy, looking anxiously towards the floor.

They both started when Anathema bolted from the white panels, hands stretched towards Raven. R fell backwards, getting behind Cyborg as he fired another series of blasts.

"Don't let her touch me." Raven said quietly as Anathema retreated to the other side of the room, joining Magnos as he threw more metal off him.

Raven sounded almost- scared? "Don't worry. She won't. Just don't let the metalhead lock me up again. I'm down to two polarity charges." Cyborg replied, priming both his cannons.

"We're outmatched Cyborg. We can't fight them both off forever." Raven murmured.

"You think we should bail? Find the rest of the team?" He fired another series of blasts, Raven chucked more panels.

"Yes." Raven urged. "You and Dick could take Anathema easily."

"But- ah dammit." Vic growled as Magnos locked him up again.

"No time." Raven cast her cloak over them both, and they passed downward into the building.

 **Beast Boy, Location Unknown**

He was pissed. First off, since he and Rae had had to cut their time short, when all he had wanted to do was be near her. Secondly, since they were in that bastard Brit's freaking school _again_.

Beast Boy ripped his chair to pieces, and studied the walls, wary for hypno screens. He was in no mood to be hypnotized. He saw no way out either. There was a carpeted balcony ringing the room, a shock of brown and red against all the white.

Making another 180, Beast Boy started when he saw the meta in a suit leaning on the balcony. He vaulted and hit the floor, rising slowly.

"Go on, do your thing." Garfield called, making impatient gestures. "Make your statement of doom."

"Shapeshifter, I'm not here for that." He grinned. "I'm here to get paid."

"With wine and women?" Beast Boy suggested.

His opponent laughed. "Rum and a high class slut."

BB played along. Rum wasn't bad. "Nice. What's your name?"

"Murphy." He bowed in Gar's direction.

"What, you're a scientist?" Beast Boy smirked. "Oh, wait no, you're that chick from the- ah hell, I forgot her name."

Murphy smiled. It was acidic. "Ever heard of Murphy's law?"

"Is that the one where you can't walk backwards with an orange in your pocket?"

"No." Murphy was still smiling. "Whatever can go wrong.-" A panel fell from the ceiling. "- _will_."

BB dove, turning to a kangaroo to escape the falling wall piece. He went panther, and pounced forward. When he got within a couple feet, the floor shifted, throwing him off balance. That was enough for Murphy to wallop him with a staff that looked just like Nightwing's.

Beast Boy hit the floor, stunned. He rose in time to make another desparate leap, another roof tile coming down nearly on top of him. More panels shattered, and he turned into a python to escape the individual shards.

Another reckless charge forward gave him the same result. A panel ripped from the floor flung him across the room. More shards of ceiling came down like rain.

"I would offer you the chance to run, but you wouldn't."

"How do you know that?" Beast Boy said as a green panther, padding in a wide circle round Murphy.

"You're entire team is profiled you know." Murphy said. "I was given quite a thick folder on you."

"What can I say?" Beast Boy lunged forward again. "I'm a popular guy."

"Apparently." The floor shifted again, but Gar twisted. They went claw to staff. "I didn't know there were green werewolves."

"Well now you know." Beast Boy went ram, planted his hooves, and hit Murphy hard enough to make him go _oomph_. Then he went bear, slashing at Murphy with his claws, and abruptly _dropped_.

Beneath him, the floor had disappeared. The only signs there had ever been a floor were some sparking wires. He took wing, and lunged at Murphy with his talons, but a massive gust of wind from a vent blew him away.

Landing on his own two feet, Beast Boy grinned in satisfaction. Murphy's suit was ruined, stained, and slashed. The man growled and flicked his hand. The room exploded. Panels ripped from the walls, electricity lanced through the air. Garfield managed to turn into an eel in time for three bolts to strike him at the same time.

He hit one of the few remaining floor panels, transforming into his usual self. Murphy glared at him from another. "Do you even realize how expensive this suit is?"

"Do you think I care?" Beast Boy countered. "Now come in quiet, or Slade will have to pay for a lot more than a suit."

Murphy looked bored. "It's so funny when you Titans make dangerous threats. What would you do to me? Throw me in jail? I've had worse shapeshifter, I've had worse."

"Why not join us?" Beast Boy coaxed. "We pay better than Slade does."

Murphy's expression soured. "Join the Titans?" His eyes flashed. "Join the team that killed my mother? Made my father an alcoholic?"

Beast Boy blanked. "What?"

Murphy's face suddenly twisted in a mocking grin. "Just kidding. Seriously though, I'm not interested in a bunch of do gooders like you. You're leader makes so many bad puns that I would kill him in his sleep."

Beast Boy shook his head, wondered how this whole encounter had become so strangely skewed. "I'll be sure to tell Nightwing that."

"Please do. If he makes one more bad joke I _will_ vomit." Murphy shuddered. "Anyways, this is where I make some ominous threat and leave." He looked down at himself in distaste. "This suit is completely ruined."

"Yeah, no." Beast Boy replied, preparing to morph. "You aren't going anywhere."

"I was afraid of that. Sorry about this."

"Sorry about wha-" Another panel had dropped in front of him, except this one was awash in black and white swirls.

Oh no.

 **Starfire, Unknown Location**

On Tamaran, royal families did not get their power from prestigious bloodlines or lofty inheritance. They got it by being the best warriors, the strongest leaders, and, on occasion, being the most feared.

All this meant that Starfire was able to break her chair into firewood fairly quickly, and was close to soaring back into the main room to join Nightwing when a lance of electricity struck her in the back. Her armor, Tamaranean mesh mail, could only do so much, even though it was a poor conductor. The blast still knocked Starfire to the floor with a defiant scream of pain.

She rose in time to ward off another strike with a short lived, fizzling shield of green energy, and fired a burst of starbolts that ripped the ceiling into pieces. But it had failed to hit the white haired woman in the black supersuit.

The villain tensed, swirls of lightning going about her like a storm cloud. With a war cry, she dove downwards.

Starfire replied in kind, a cone of green nearly turned solid when they impacted with the other. The room was nearly atomized with a massive explosion. The two female fighters remained in the center, green and electric silver slashing as they traded blows.

A punch, a block, two kicks and a burst from her eyes. The villain was knock back, but she replied with a shockwave that nearly put Star on her back.

"I am Emp, the resident powerhouse." The villain declared, tendrils of energy trailing off her cape. "You can't beat me."

"Yes, I can." Starfire didn't like to waste time talking. That was Dick's preference. She clenched her fists, compressing her bolts into bombs. As Emp slung more sparks, Star dodged, flying this way and that. She hooked one bomb to the right, curving it at the perfect angle. The other she chucked hard, a deadly pitch that grazed her first toss.

It was a terrific explosion. Emp was hurled hard against the wall, but she pushed off just as quick, electricity funneling off the wall, sparking off her cape. As long as she had access to power, she could keep coming back.

Or, Starfire could pound her into the ground like a howitzer. She opted for that. Star clenched her fists again, feeling the buzz of the bolt forming and hardening.

Emp drifted level with her, electricity fizzling about her, making her cape snap and flutter. She raised a hand, Starfire did the same.

When they both fired, the whole building shook like it was going to come down, and the battered room was absolutely destroyed.

 **Nightwing, Location Unknown**

Mod must have gotten his chairs from the dollar store. It had been criminally easy to break the built in cuffs, but Slade's apprentice was another story. Ravager was good. Almost as formidable as Slade was. "Where is he?"

"My boss? Not here, but you don't need to worry on his behalf." Ravager sounded like he was grinning. "He's safe and sound."

Nightwing tried to bring his foot down on Ravager's head, but he parried, and snapped a punch out. "I don't want him safe or sound." Dick growled as he batted the punch aside.

What Dick really wanted was the chance to relax for a change. To enjoy his marriage and maybe even raise a family without having to worry about aliens, Slade, or the Brotherhood. He was tired of the nonstop fighting, and the deaths involved. It hadn't been just veteran Titans that had fallen over the years, there had been promising recruits who had met a foul end.

"Too bad." Ravager drew a staff out from behind his back. Nightwing mimicked him. They clashed in a shower of sparks. "The Titans are doomed Nightwing, surely you realize that."

Not this again. "We've been told that before, and we're still here." Nightwing growled as he pounded his staff against Ravager's.

"This is different Nightwing." Ravager crooned, snapping an elbow towards his chin. "The Titans will either be destroyed in battle, or replaced."

"By your band of jokers?" Nightwing retorted, blocking the strike well. "Keep dreaming. Better villains than you have tried to bring us down."

"There _are_ no better villains than us." Ravager growled. "We're the best that's ever been, and the best that ever will be."

Nightwing was about to reply with some kind of snarky remark, but then the floor behind them both blew open in a rush of fire. The shockwave blew them both off their feet.

Emp came soaring into the room, throwing lances at Starfire as she came on in pursuit, wreathed in green. Star crashed into Emp, sending them both to the floor with a small explosion.

Nightwing refocused in time to block three furious attacks by Ravager, three brutal swipes with his staff that banged against Dick's. They traded more blows until Nightwing caught a boot heading for his face. Behind his mask, Ravager had time to widen his eyes before Nightwing threw him across the room.

Feeling an exhilarating sense of déjà vu, Nightwing came on with a furious barrage of punches and kicks, driving Ravager back as the villain struggled to defend himself. Finally, Nightwing snapped a kick to Ravager's chin that cracked his mask.

He rose, rubbing his jaw. "Another time Nightwing. You're team is still needed, but you had best watch your back." Ravager plucked something off his belt and threw it at his feet.

Nightwing dove into the smoke, but Ravager had gone. Then something slammed into him. Fortunately, it was his wife, not another foe.

"You are not hurt?" Star asked, patting him down eagerly for wounds.

"I'm fine. You?" Nightwing checked her out as well, noting that her skirt was charred, but she had no obvious injuries.

"I am well." She pecked him on the lips. "We should find the rest of our friends."

They ran through the facility, Star blowing the walls open as Nightwing covered her from Mod's staccato minions. Eventually, they stumbled into room that looked like it had been torn to pieces. Large sections of the walls had been torn away, the balcony was gone, and in the middle of it all was Beast Boy. Unmoving.

They panicked, Starfire grabbed him by the elbows and flew them both over the island of floor that BB was laying on.

"Oh great." Nightwing groaned, very relieved. "Mod hypnotized him again."

Starfire frowned. "Boogers?" No response. She drew back her mail off her forearm, and blew air into the crook of her elbow, making a very loud farting noise. "We need friend Raven, she was able to wake him before."

Nightwing nodded. "Can you carry him until we find the others?"

Given that Starfire was the strongest of the team, it wasn't an unreasonable request. She nodded and scooped Garfield off the floor. He fired a grapple into the ceiling and they both moved out of the room. They continued on, finding a gym, but no sign of Raven. The blasted through a computer lab, but didn't find Cyborg.

Nightwing was wondering if they would ever see the two again when a massive black raven soared up out of the floor, deposited Cyborg in front of them, and landed behind them.

"We've got incoming." Cyborg said breathlessly, pointing his cannon at the floor. "Magnos and Anathema."

"Surprise!" There was a cry of pain behind them. Anathema had come up behind Raven and put her in a headlock. Then Cyborg cursed as Magnos locked him up.

Nightwing and Star exchanged a glance, and moved. Nightwing went at Anathema, kicking a knife out of her hand and yanking Raven out of her grip. The sorceress scrambled away.

He lunged at Anathema, snapping out punches and kicks. She was suddenly blasted away by a familiar blue pillar of energy, and Cyborg stepped up beside him.

Anathema rose slowly, glaring at them both. "Magnos, fall back!" She called and she slipped beneath the floor.

Twisting, Nightwing saw Magnos disappear into a panel. Raven and Starfire ripped the wall to shreds, but there was no sign of the metal bender.

"Raven, you OK?" Cyborg asked when they regrouped.

She looked exhausted. "I'll live." Raven only had eyes for Beast Boy. She knelt in front of where Star had propped him against the wall. "Hypnotized again?"

"Yeah, we were hoping you or Cyborg could wake him up." Nightwing replied.

"I can." Raven leaned forward, placing her hands on either side of BB's head. Her forehead nearly touched his, and she began to chant under her breath.

A minute passed. Nightwing was about to suggest that Cyborg try something when Beast Boy suddenly started, his eyes clearing. The shape shifter stared at Raven for a second, then looked down at the drool that soaked his collar.

"Not again." He groaned.

"You're welcome." Raven said, sounding amused.

"Uh, how much of that did you see?" Beast Boy asked, clearly nervous. Why was his face so red?

"All of it." Raven was wearing a very mischievous smile.

Beast Boy cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Uh, well then." He looked to Nightwing. "What did I miss?"

"Not much." Dick answered, feeling curious. Beast Boy had probably just given Raven excellent blackmail material. She had the same look on her face when they discovered Beast Boy's real name.

"Our communicators?" Beast Boy asked as Raven helped him up.

Cyborg shrugged. "Probably busted. I put in a failsafe after Paris. If our comms get too far away for too long they fry themselves."

"Nice." Beast Boy grunted. "Do we have Mad Mod already or does Dick have to do a flying leap into a wall?"

"He's most likely already gone, along with the rest of the Arch-Titans." Nightwing growled. "We've got to keep an eye out for them."

"Oh great, another enemy to worry about." BB sighed. "Let's scram, I'm sick of this place."

"Right." Nightwing said. "Raven?"

Without a word, their resident sorceress cast her shadowy cloak over them all, and whisked them away.


	13. Revival

**I'm very sorry for the delay guys. I'll belt the next one out soon. The next couple are gonna be all about the Alien Invasion, so buckle your seatbelt. Enjoy!**

 **Arsenal, Titans West Tower**

"How did you even know we were out there?" Arsenal asked. Cheshire was balanced on his lap. "And how did you get back here so fast?"

She pressed a finger to his lips. "That's a secret."

"I'm tired of secrets. Any more news on the Cabal?" Arsenal grumbled.

"No, not really. They've gone dark since you busted their bunker." Jade replied, drawing her thumb over his jawline. "Are you growing a beard?"

"Maybe." He thought back to the first night they met. It had been a massive, fancy charity ball. He had gone there, undercover, to ferret out Cheshire's true identity. The Titans had solid intel that guaranteed her presence.

"Hmm." She tapped a steady beat on his chin. "I think I like the idea."

"Do you now." He buried his face in her neck. Cheshire purred.

They'd met at the bar, of all places. He'd just ordered a whiskey when she had slid onto the seat next to his, and ordered the strongest drink the place had. Conversation had been quick and easy. He had bought another three drinks. They had both _pretended_ to down the alcohol. Both had reason to stay very sober.

"Speaking of likes." Cheshire proclaimed. "And the things we don't. I got a very interesting job offer."

 _Oh great_. "Am I going to like it?"

"Probably not."

As the night wore on, Roy had kept moving, looking for clues as to the identity of Cheshire, but he kept running into Jade, looking incredible in a very dangerous green dress. Their idle quips turned into flirting and slow dances. Hands began to linger on each other's shoulders and hips.

"Please don't take the offer." Arsenal said wearily. "I don't have the time to be chasing you down."

She slid off his lap. "Roy, if I don't take this offer, I'll be penniless."

"So be a Titan. It pays pretty good."

"I am _not_ becoming a Titan." She retorted. "I've told you that I can't."

Once the night had ended, and with no suspicious activity worth nothing, Roy had retreated to his room. The kiss on his cheek seeming to linger for a while. He had kept looking. The event lasted a week after all. And everyday, he was pulled into Jade's orbit, spending time with her as he searched for clues. Little things, like suspicious patterns or behaviors. Jade helped, proving to be a goldmine of information on the other attendees to the event.

"You've never given me a reason good enough to stop asking." Arsenal countered.

Cheshire gathered up her weapons and dumped them on the bed. "It is the same reason a mouse never tries to fly. It is outside of its nature."

"You can be a hero Jade."

"And you could be an outlaw with me, but you choose otherwise." She began strapping her assortment of killing tools to her body. "Because you cannot be anything _but_ a Titan."

Their flirting grew hungrier by the day. Eventually they had stumbled into her room one night hazy with alcohol and lust. She had shoved him onto the bed, held him there for a moment, and then slipped away to her bathroom to get into something more comfortable. While waiting, he had wandered a little round her room, and found something behind a desk that stopped his heart. A mask and two katana. He had reached for his communicator only to find it gone.

Cheshire slid onto his lap again. "Why are you staring at me?"

Arsenal had never been one to mince words. "I was thinking of our first night."

She smiled in return. "When I nearly killed you?"

"When we nearly killed each other."

Jade had emerged from the bathroom, wearing a breathtaking amount of nothing. Roy had stared, a lot, and then tried to make his leave. He had gotten what information he needed. But Jade had insisted he stay, wrapping her bare arms about his neck and purring in his ear.

 _You don't need to leave Roy, stay here with me._ He'd hardly been able to resist.

"And then you say- 'Or should I say, Arsenal.'" He recounted. "I still don't know how you managed to pick my pocket."

"I have my ways." Cheshire answered, still perched on his lap. "Once I had your little communicator it was obvious who you were."

"We _were_ rather close during the Paris incident weren't we?" Arsenal asked ruefully.

"You're such a sore loser." Cheshire traced the lines of his face with her thumb. "I wouldn't have let you be frozen if I had known you better."

"I couldn't believe you were my target. Made turning you in much harder." Roy admitted.

"And I couldn't kill you." Cheshire confessed. She frowned slightly. "I wish this could be simpler Roy."

"It doesn't have to be this complicated."

"Yes, it does."

Arsenal sighed. "When did you plan to leave?"

"In a little while." Cheshire seemed to deflate a little. "But I'll see you again soon."

"You can't seem to stay away." Arsenal teased, giving her hips a squeeze.

Cheshire opened her mouth to reply, but another voice took front stage. "Hey Roy, you mind if I eat- oh."

Jade's reflexes were lightning fast, but Kid Flash had a habit of arriving before his words did. By the 'hey', she had dove behind the bed, but it was too late. The door was half open, and Wally leaned against the frame, smirking. "Well shit Arsenal, I didn't know you had a girl in here, I'll just leave you two alone." He closed the door, and strode off down the hall.

Arsenal exchanged a panicked glance with Cheshire. If their secret romance was discovered- neither wanted to think of the possible consequences.

Roy jumped from his chair and ran down the hall, quickly catching Wally as he strolled down the corridor. "Flash."

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell a soul. I'm serious."

Wally raised his eyebrows. "Dude, I'm just impressed. You're in bed with _her_?" He shook his head in amazement. "Damn."

"Wally." Arsenal growled. "Keep your lips sealed, that's an order."

"Relax." Flash said. "You do realize who I'm dating right?"

"Cheshire isn't a Titan."

"Neither was Jinx, but I loved her back then, still do." Flash shrugged. "I didn't tell anyone about us till Paris." He looked sideways at Arsenal. "I'm not going to spill your secret Roy."

Arsenal felt the tension leave him. "Thanks. My life is complicated enough."

"Don't I know it." Flash grumbled. "You know of any good food places round here? I wanted to take Jinx somewhere."

"There's a place with really good noodles downtown." Arsenal suggested. He and Cheshire had gone there once, and gotten take-out.

"How do you get there?"

Arsenal laid it out to him, telling him of all the twists and turns. Wally thanked him, and sped off in a streak of red and yellow.

He quickly returned to his room to find Cheshire sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking ready to bolt. "Are his lips sealed?" She asked.

"Sealed tight." Arsenal sat heavily on the bed. "We were lucky to be caught by the only Titan dating a former villain."

"Good. If the people I used to work for find out about this, you'd be a target." Cheshire warned. "And I won't allow that."

"We could take them down." Arsenal suggested. "Who are they?" He had never really asked about her line of work. All he knew was that she was an assassin, a hired gun. His conscience was soothed by the assurance that she killed only the wicked.

"Not your way Roy, there's too much politics. And not my way either, they have too much protection." Cheshire quipped. She always liked to speak in riddles like this. "But I'm working on that."

"How so?" Arsenal asked.

She gave him another brief kiss. "You'll find out."

Oh great, it was going to be another surprise. "I'd rather you tell me Jade."

"I cannot. Trust me Roy."

A bad feeling was eating away at his stomach. _Why does she need me to trust her on this? What kind of game is she playing?_ "Jade, I won't get in the way. I never have."

"You love me too much Roy." Cheshire chided, smiling slightly. She slipped off his lap, going to the window. "Just act as you normally would, and everything will work out."

He followed her. "I still don't understand. What exactly are you planning to do?"

"Roy…"

He wound his arms around her trim waist. "Tell me."

She gave him a deadpan stare. "I'll be working with bad people to take down other people that are even worse. And that's all I'm telling you."

She had that look on her face that told him he wouldn't get anything more, so he backed off. "Fine. But can I at least give you a proper send off?"

"You whore Roy, don't you think of anything else?"

"Well…"

" _Roy_."

"Hm?"

"Why are you trying to get bowstring around my wrists?"

"No reason."

 **Risk, Titans South Tower**

It had been a week since they had managed to pull his teammates out of the hell bunker, and Joto still hadn't woken up. Argent never left his bedside, making sure his IV was always full. The rest of the team visited his bedside frequently.

Risk was glad for his sudden closeness with Prysm, and also felt a bit guilty because of it. It was foolish, but how could he feel all that happy with his best friend in a coma? If he could trade places with Joto, Risk would do it in a heartbeat.

All the same, he and Prysm spent plenty of time together, not really talking about _them_ , at least not yet. Her natural optimism was a blessing, and he was beginning to see that they might work out after all.

He was sitting by Joto's side now. Argent was on another one of the beds, taking a much-needed rest. Risk watched his friend's face listlessly. They all hoped, but Hot Spot showed no signs of waking.

"Risk." Prysm stood in the doorway. "Donna wants us in the common room. Says it's something we have to see."

Cody gave his two bed ridden teammates one last glance. "Alright." He followed Prysm down the hall, and into the common room where Donna was on the mainframe, typing furiously.

"What's up?" Risk asked.

"And what are you wearing?" Prysm asked curiously. Donna was dressed in a entirely black tank and pants, with silver bracers, belt, and rope. Her sword and shield were propped against her chair.

"Oh, it's just something I brought with me from home. I don't really- like the color red anymore." She replied, tapping the 'enter' key a few times.

"What did you need to show us?" Prysm prompted.

"I was talking to Argent earlier, about what happened in the bunker. We both decided that the Cabal had to be doing something with all the shapes she was making. Argent's plasma can stabilize dams. Who knows what the Cabal is doing with her powers?"

"So why are you on the computer?" Risk asked.

"I asked her to describe all the shapes she could remember making, and you know how good Argent's memory is. So I spent an hour using an engineering simulation left over from when Cyborg designed the Tower, putting all the shapes in. Then I told it to use an algorithm to tell us what the likeliest building possibility is."

"Wow." That was all Risk could manage.

"Tell that to Cyborg. He's the one that designed the software." Donna peered up at the screen, where a progress bar was steadily inching towards completion. "It's almost done."

"At least we'll finally find out what the Cabal has planned." Risk growled. He was eager to fight them again after what they had done to his teammates. They had hooked Argent up to an Enabler. An unholy making of Luthor that forced superpowers to manifest, even to the point of killing a metahuman of exhaustion.

Then the program finally finished doing it's thing, and the final schematics flashed onto the screen with a cheerful _ding_.

"Oh my God." Donna murmured.

"How big is that thing?" Risk demanded. The schematics showed a bright red cannon barrel, stretching across the screen.

"Thirty five meters in length. Ten meters in width." Donna stared at the screen. "They forced her to make a massive howitzer."

"No wonder she's been sleeping so much." Prysm muttered. "What do you think they're going to do with this thing?"

"Nothing good." Donna said glumly, putting her head in her hands.

At the other end of the room, the door opened, and Argent burst through, gasping like she had run a marathon. "He's awake! Joto's awake!"

They all stared at each other for a moment, and then bolted, running down the hallways to the infirmary. Risk's heart was in his throat, and he didn't know whether to feel relieved or more worried than before. A part of him didn't want to know what the Cabal had done to his friend.

When they reached the infirmary, Hot Spot was sitting up on the bed, looking pale and tired. Argent had outpaced them all, and was next to him already, urging water to his lips.

Relief won. "Croc Pot, how you feeling?"

At his most hated nickname, Hot Spot could only smile. "Not good, Cody."

They were at his side in a flash. "Hot Spot, I want a full diagnostic, tell me everything that's happened." Donna ordered softly.

"Is that an order? And what's with the new outfit?" Joto smirked flippantly, leaning his head back into the pillow. Argent edged herself onto the bed with him timidly. Joto cast his arm over her shoulders. Risk was suddenly aware of Prysm leaning slightly against his side.

"Hot Spot, we need to know. What did the Cabal do to you?" Donna pressed.

"Isaiah, please." Argent pleaded.

Hot Spot sighed, when he spoke, it was like the words were being dragged out with rope. "They hooked me up to an Enabler, made me shoot fire for a lot longer than I ever should. I don't remember much, just lots of pain, and then it went black." Joto shook his head, obviously trying to remember more. "They made me fill a container. It was strange. It looked like a ball of plastic, but it held all the fire I put in it." Joto's gaze was dull. "That shouldn't have happened."

"Why?" Argent urged.

He couldn't meet her eyes. "They forced me to pour my hottest fire into that ball. It was hot enough to make steel rebar into a puddle. Whatever that ball was made of, it had to have incredible heat resistance. And now the Cabal has _that_. People have been trying to get their hands on my magma for years. It's one of the most potent energy sources in the world, and I let a band of terrorists get it." His face was lowered in shame. His voice was low and bitter.

"You didn't have a choice." Argent soothed. "I didn't either."

"What did they do to you?" Joto searched her face.

"The same thing. They made me make-" Argent looked to Donna. "Did the program sort it out yet?"

"A- cannon barrel Toni, that's what the program estimated." Their leader replied gently. She looked exhausted.

"Oh."

"So a big gun barrel and a massive energy source." Risk said. "Am I the only one not liking where this is going?"

 **Bumblebee, Algiers**

She still had no idea why she had taken this mission. She should've made Titans North take the task of tracking Blood Cultists in this ridiculous heat.

But there had also been reports of John Constantine roaming Algiers, and East had a score to settle with him.

She was flying high above the city, peering downward with her binoculars. She was trailing a Blood operative move through the city, keeping her head ducked down low as she passed through the crowds.

"Bee, me and Quickdraw ran into some trouble. Constantine is somewhere underneath you. He just took a shot at us." Mayley reported.

"Got it. Bravo, Kilowat, anything?"

" _Si_. We have encountered many cultists." Bravo answered. "They are being very annoying."

Bumblebee had to grin at that. Bravo had the ability to amplify any superpower he was close to. Kilowat had to be having fun with the extra juice. Luckily for the team that Kilowat's leave to his dimension had been a short one. Aqualad, however, was still in Atlantis.

She dove through a cloud, and found her tail again, only to see her bolt off the streets and into an alley.

 _And where does she think she's going_. Bumblebee shrunk herself down to the size of a bee, and dove downward into the alley. She found the cultist quickly, the woman in red ducked through a doorway, and Bee followed.

Her tail vaulted a table and dashed up a stairway, coming out onto the roof. She continued to run, hopping from roof to roof with a practiced kind of grace. After what seemed like an hour of following this cultist as she leaped from perch to perch, they went downwards into an alley.

Bee didn't know why this cultist was sticking to the shadows at all. She wasn't even in the usual Blood robes, she wore dull khaki. Bumblebee was only tailing her since she met with a known cultist a million damn blocks ago. As Bee watched, she grinned smugly and walked a few steps forward, chin held high.

Neither of them were prepared for Constantine to come smashing through a stack of crates, wrapped in flame. Bee's target squawked in dismay and withdrew a pair of exotic knives from behind her back.

"Mar, your time is up." Constantine intoned. Fireballs gathered in his palms.

"Don't count on it." Mar hissed.

Unbelievable, this was _the_ Mar, the daughter of the newest Brother Blood, and yet, she bore no mark of Scath.

"Where is your brother Mar?" Constantine asked.

"I don't know where that traitor is. If I did, I would've taken him back to my father for judgment." Mar spat. She twirled her knives expertly. She spoke, naturally, of Harbinger. The newest Cult of Blood seemed to be a family enterprise.

"Don't make me ask again." Constantine growled. "I've killed before, and I'm not afraid for a repeat performance."

"For what? To somehow make sense of all the blood you've shed?" Mar grinned savagely at him. "We _know_ blood Constantine, and you're soaked in it. Did you come here to me because you had nowhere else to go?"

The occult master's face twisted in an expression of anger and loathing. "I came here for answers witch. You know the answer to what I ask."

Mar's expression darkened in rage. "Witch?" She spat at his feet. "I am not like my brother. I am Blood at its finest. We will bathe the world in blood, and build humanity again in those that can _swim_."

Constantine grimaced. "You're going to need a lot of donations." His hands flamed up again.

Mar snarled and leaped at him, knives flashing. Constantine hardened his flames into bludgeons, and blocked the flurry of swings with deft blocks. Sparks showered, and a blast of flame threw Mar backwards.

"Alright you two." Both combatants started as Bumblebee went full size, both her shockers trained at one of them. "Break it up, you're coming with me."

Mar hissed like a scalded cat. "Titan."

Constantine was more composed. "I told you and your team once Bumblebee. Do not get in my way."

"We're not good at listening." Bumblebee remarked. "To anyone really."

"Fantastic." Constantine grumbled. "I'll have to bring down all of you."

"Not happening _senor_." Bravo and Kilowat appeared from behind Mar. Kilo lit up, crackling with so much energy Bumblebee could feel the heat from several meters away.

"And _dude_." Mayley appeared on an adjacent roof. "Would it kill you to shower? Your magic ass smells like hobos and Hot Pockets."

"Dammit." Mar breathed. She looked badly unsettled with an entire team of Titans around her.

 _As she should_.

"Blue, Q, on the Blood. Wat, Bravo, we're on Constantine." Bumblebee advanced on the two villains. "I recommend that the both of you come in quietly."

Mar shot a nervous glance to the blue Beast, and Quickdraw in his ready stance. Constantine continued to look maddeningly calm.

And then, they both jumped off the damn roof. The Titan response was immediate. Bumblebee went after the occult master with her two fellows close behind. "Goddamn Kilowat. Bravo is really juicing you isn't he?"

Wat laughed. "I say we keep him." He stretched his hand out and let loose a blast of lightning down the alley. Bee went skyward and added her bolts to the mix. Constantine's shields took most of the blows, but one of Bee's lasts nailed him square in the back, sending him careening into a pile of rubbish.

They came even; Constantine put his back up to a wall, and let loose with a massive wall of flame, but was stymied by a wall of lightning just as big. Kilowat was pulsing with power, a silver aura thrummed around him like a heartbeat. Bravo's hand was on his shoulder, obviously funneling all of the Spanish meta's strength to Wat.

Their lightning man formed a lasso of lightning, and cast it expertly over Constantine. Their opponent struggled mightily, fighting hard with his fire, but the lightning didn't dissipate, and the occult master went to his knees. He looked absolutely exhausted.

"Why don't you people realize that I am trying to help you." Constantine growled.

"Then prove it." Bee demanded. "Start talking. What do you know about Trigon coming back?"

"Only that the Cult has something to do with it." Constantine admitted, gritting his teeth. "I would know more if you damn Titans didn't keep getting in my way."

"And Mar is the common link?"

"She's the only high ranking member of the Cult to be out and about. All the rest are staying very low to the ground." Constantine answered, flexing against the lasso. Kilowat frowned and amped more power into his bonds. The occult master grunted and stilled.

"How many more shrines to Trigon are there? How many more bases?" Bee asked.

"Plenty, but you wont find anything there. It's only a band of maniacs praying to something they don't understand." Constantine had the gall to grin at her. "Besides, after you busted them in Paris, they'll lay low for a while."

"We could work together on this Constantine."

"Maybe, but so far you haven't been very good sidekicks."

"We're more than that." Bee said angrily. . "Fine then, if you won't cooperate, then it's jail."

"No jail could hold me for long."

Bumblebee grinned at that. "Really?" She flipped her comm open and hit a code only a few people knew. "JLA Desk, this is Titans East Lead calling in for a pickup, over."

Constantine's eyes widened.

She enjoyed his expression. Sure it didn't feel nice for the Justice League to completely override her jurisdiction (which she knew they would), but it was worth it to put this smug bastard behind bars. "Titans East Lead." Her comm crackled. "This is the Desk, report."

Even if she had to go through more smug bastards. "I have Constantine subdued in Algiers. If you guys want him for some special cell, then he's yours."

There was silence for a moment. "Copy East, we're sending a member to help bring him in. Standby and wait for reinforcement."

"Copy. Can I get an ETA?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Copy." Bumblebee switched calls. "Mayley, status on Mar?"

"Fast." Marley gasped. "I can't get a handle on her."

"Keep trying. We need her to talk."

Constantine remained still. "You think the Justice League could hold me? They've never seemed to before."

"They'll hold you long enough to be out of the way." Bumblebee said cockily.

"Out of the way?" Constantine shook his head in frustration. "You are the ones in the way."

"The Titans have saved the Earth, several times." Bee quipped. "We don't need your help."

"Yes, you do. You only have one magic user in your ranks." Constantine sighed. "That is not enough."

Bumblebee thought of Raven's menacing power. "Yes it is."

They went back and forth until a jet swept by and pulled a hard U-turn, coming to hover directly over their heads. Zatanna leapt from the doorway before it even opened fully.

"Constantine, I see you're managing to be in the thick of trouble as always." The sorceress proclaimed as she fished out a pair of handcuffs.

"And I had no idea you've missed me this much." Constantine was smirking again. "Why the handcuffs?"

"You're charged with the murder of a captain in Porto." Zatanna answered as she clapped the manacles round his wrists. Kilowatt dispelled his lasso.

"Oh come on. He was working with the other side. I wouldn't expect the mall cops-" He jerked his head in the Titans' direction. "-to understand, but you? You know what I'm talking about."

"We will discuss this later Constantine." Zatanna said, looking troubled. She looked back up at Bumblebee. "Thanks, I'll take him out of your hair."

"What are you going to do with him?" Bee asked.

"I cannot say." Zatanna said shortly. She levitated Constantine up to the silver league VTOL with a snap of her fingers. "Just be careful Bumblebee, dark things are stirring."

"We know." Bumblebee muttered. It seemed like Leaguers always treated the Titans like doormats. She craned her head back as Zatanna climbed into the VTOL, and the vessel took off.

Bee began another call. "Report."

Quickdraw answered. "Still trying to get her number."

"So there's no chance in hell you'll get her?"

"Har har. We're looking for her now."

"I'm coming, with the rest of the team. Keep tracking her."

"And Constantine?"

"The Justice League has him." She couldn't hide the displeasure in her voice.

"Relax Bee. Magic man is out of our way now. Let's just focus on Mar."

She huffed in concession, already gesturing to Kilowatt and Bravo. "Right, let's go get her."


	14. Bore War

**Very sorry for the delay. This chapter gave me trouble. I kinda flip-flopped between ideas until I finally settled on one. The Merry Band gets its debut. Enjoy!**

 **Red X, New York**

He never understood the kind of blind optimism that people sometimes got when they went to New York. It was a city, filled with vices and crime. Filled with people, more or less, and it wasn't better than any place he knew of.

X crouched at the edge of a roof, with Blackfire behind him. "So what's the plan?" She asked coolly.

X gazed at the foyer of Redman's Tower for a moment longer, and then turned to face his team. Blackfire stood with a hip cocked, hand resting lightly on her waist. Cheshire stood behind her, arms crossed in impatience. She had found them quickly after Red X had sent his clandestine message her way. Kyd Wykkyd was perched on a piece of rooftop ventilation. He had come from Gotham.

"We go in by the roof. Three floors down we're going to find some offices. There, we'll find paydirt."

"We are going to get rich by plundering an _office_?" Cheshire asked. She sounded irritated.

He wasn't going to put up with this. "If you want to walk, then go. It'll mean a better cut for the rest of us." X replied cockily.

Cheshire didn't move. "What's in the office?"

"Redman handles all the taxes for one very important man. Boss Catron." X lazily replied.

Blackfire had no reaction to the name, but Kyd choked, and Cheshire laughed. "We're going to steal the tax returns of a mob boss?"

"We're doing more than that." Red said. "We're going to rob him blind."

"How?" Blackfire asked curiously. "Does he have cash in there?"

The trouble with working with your fellow thief was that they were always so cagey. X could understand the feeling, thieves and those like them looked out for themselves, and nearly no one else.

"You're going to have to trust me for an hour." Red replied. "We go in, grab some papers, and get out."

Kyd frowned, Cheshire glared at him suspiciously from behind her mask, and Blackfire simply raised her eyebrows. They needed to go along with this. X was good, but Catron had most likely locked up the building with some deadly bodyguards, and a team would give the Titans a better run for their money.

"Alright, I'll go along with this." Blackfire smiled carelessly. "If it gets boring I could always bail." To this, Kyd shrugged, and gave X a nod.

Cheshire sighed, and stepped forward. "Let's go."

"You mind warping me over there Kyd?" Wykkyd grinned slightly, and nodded again.

Blackfire and Cheshire had a small stare-down. "You think you could carry me over? Without dropping me?"

The Tamaranean looked her up and down critically. "You could stand to lose a few pounds, but sure, I'll do my best."

Cheshire didn't reply as Blackfire grabbed her by the armpits, and dragged her up into the air. X gave a slight nod to Kyd, and the dark villain swung his cape in their direction. Red had the sensation of falling sideways, accompanied by total darkness. It was over within a second, and he stumbled slightly when they arrived on the roof.

Blackfire and Cheshire landed a moment later, and together they stacked up on the roof-side door.

X pressed his thumb to a gauntlet to call the sawblade forth, just in time for Blackfire to unceremoniously punch the door down. He shook his head in exasperation and stepped over the threshold.

"Kyd, check corners." X commanded. The darker villain nodded, and ghosted forward to peer around the corners, cloaking his face in shadow so no one looking for intruders would see him.

Kyd waved them forward, and they descended further down. They took it in stages, Kyd checking for guards, finding it clear, and then moving forward again.

"It's not supposed to be this easy." Cheshire hissed.

"It is if you got into security and sent out an order telling all the guards to go down five floors." Red X replied.

"And how did you do that?"

"I didn't, the Runners did."

Cheshire was quiet for a moment at that. "I thought they worked with the Titans."

"The Runners take contracts from all sorts of people, on both sides of the law." X said lazily. The Runners were loose cannons, all three of them. The big three at least, Hax led the hackers, Ghost the spies, and Dare the fighters. If anything, the Runners were a PMC that worked entirely from the shadows. To contact them, you had to know the right people, and have plenty of dough in your pockets.

Blackfire sniffed a bit in disdain. "When are the Titans going to show?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "It's been too long since I've seen my sister dear."

Cheshire spared a quick glance her way. "Is that all you think about?"

"Funny, coming from the old cat woman."

"Ladies please." X quipped. "Have the catfight _after_ we get this done."

That shut them both up, and all were quiet as they trundled down the steps.

"How much time do we have?" Cheshire asked. "Before the guards come back?"

"Honestly, I don't know." He gave her a sidelong glance. "Not afraid of some security, are you?"

"I'm not. I'm bored, I would rather we get caught." Blackfire grinned maliciously. "That would be more fun."

"Cool it. You'll get your chance to blast some people." X growled. One more flight of stairs and they were in.

One final door. X popped out his lock-picking kit and went to work. Carefully inserting a single, thin piece of Xenothium into the keyhole, and then simply jerked upward. The hard material crushed the fine workings of the lock. He twisted the handle, and allowed the door to swing open limply.

They were faced with a wide, private office, strewn with papers. There were also two men feeding a shredder with documents. They stared for a moment, slack-jawed, and then shoved fists into their jackets.

X spun two boomerangs off his wrists, and slung them with ruthless accuracy, delivering painful cuts to the hands of both men. This distracted them enough for Kyd and Cheshire to lunge forward and beat them into the floor.

"Nice work." X grunted. "Alright, let's start digging. Kyd, watch the door."

Kyd nodded, and warped away. X assumed he would watch from the shadows.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Cheshire said gruffly as she swept a stack of papers aside, examining them critically.

"Anything that could make a problem for him. A paper trail." X scattered the papers. The good stuff would stand out. The Boss would never expect a band of meta criminals to actually be here. He was an arrogant man.

"Is this something?" Blackfire asked in her customary bored tone. She held a folder that was close to bursting with papers. X was over to her in two long strides. He took the folder, popped it open, and studied the contents. He felt his lips curl into a smirk.

"We got it. Now let's get out of here."

Blackfire pouted. "Aw, we're not going to have any fun while we're at it?"

"I didn't say that." X replied. "Blast the door open."

She complied, the power gathering in her fist and letting it loose as a ray of purple force that punched the door off its hinges. Kyd poked his head into the now vacant frame, looking bewildered.

Cheshire put his feelings into words. "What the hell are you doing?"

"She's following the plan." X said simply. He strode into the other room, and handed the fat folder to Kyd. "Wyk, take the papers back to the safe house, and then come back. We're going to have company."

"What?" Cheshire said sharply.

"The Titans are going to show. That's the next part of the plan."

Cheshire unsheathed her claws. "Explain. Now."

"When the Titans get here, they're going to investigate Catron. They're going to put pressure on him. That's going to make blackmailing him much easier." X said leisurely.

Cheshire stared at him for several moments, and sheathed her claws. "Fine." She peered over her shoulder as they all heard a rush of footsteps coming from down the hall. "They're coming."

The door across the room was kicked down, Cheshire swung her arm in a wide arc, scattering little black spheres from her voluminous sleeves. Immediate eruptions of black vapor revealed them to be smoke pellets. X used the opportunity to press his 'rangs out, slinging them so that they knocked the weapons out of the disoriented guards' hands.

Blackfire fired four more beams, sending all the guards into the wall. "That wasn't all that much fun."

"Just wait." X could hear another cascade of footsteps pounding down the hallway beyond the cracked door the security squad had kicked down. "Showtime."

Three more squads later, Kyd returned in time to kick a guard across the room. He flashed X a thumbs up.

"Now, the fun begins." X muttered.

"So now what?" Cheshire asked.

Her question was answered with a loud hum behind them, and a gust of air that rolled lazily throughout the room. His team turned to see Titans West standing in front of the high-rise windows.

Cheshire hissed.

 **Arsenal, New York**

He had the worst luck. Titans Central and North were chasing down the necessary virus. East was still pursuing the Cult of Blood, which meant it was his team that had to respond when Red X and three other criminals had started making noise in the building of Redman's in New York. It was very large company that happened to help fund the Titans, and do charity work all around the globe.

Roy wasn't thinking of that though. He was staring at Cheshire with blood pounding in his ears. He wasn't expecting to see her here. He had never thought he would have to _fight_ her again. Weren't they past that?

"What, we're not worth the real team?" Cheshire said, drawing her claws.

Her voice was like a punch in the chest. Liang stepped very close to him. "Don't lock up _now_ Roy, we need you." Their token alien whispered.

The remark felt like a bucket of ice water. He had locked up. "Right." Arsenal growled, feeling suddenly irritated. "What are you doing here X?"

The masked thief spread his arms in an innocent looking gesture. "I'm on business."

"As if." Dice bit back, her DSR set on stun and trained in X's direction. "Do we have to beat the truth out of you?"

"Maybe we should go gambling sometime." X sounded like he was smirking behind his mask.

"Sure, we'll play Russian Roulette." Dice smiled coldly. "I'll load up all six cylinders and you can go first."

"Easy there Ice Queen." Blackfire growled.

"You ought to know." Liang said tonelessly. "Shouldn't you be in jail- on another planet?"

"Come in quietly X." Arsenal pulled back the string, an arrow pointed at the white face of the helmet.

"Word of advice." Rangs sprung from his gauntlets. "Rich men are always crooked." He swung, sending the red crosses flying at Arsenal. Roy shot one out of the air, Liang incinerated the other, and the fight began.

Arsenal nocked three more arrows and fired them all at X as Dice fired a burst at the masked thief as well. Both missed, X dodging to the side wickedly fast.

Freefall deflected a beam from Blackfire with her hardened forearms, and charged forward, delivering a punch that knocked the renegade Tamaranian into the wall. Bushido dashed towards X with drawn sword, but Kyd appeared in front, slashing with his razor cape. They began to parry, their weapons cutting at the other so quickly that they were streaks of color.

Dice and Liang were battling with X, firing bursts and going sword on X-knives. Arsenal started, realizing there was someone missing.

He saw the glowing green eyes a second before she appeared, having jumped off a desk. Time slowed as she bore down at him from above, and he lifted his bow just in time to block her claws from coming down.

He snapped out a sweeping kick that knocked her off her feet, nocked another stunner. Roy pointed it down at Cheshire, on the floor with a startled light in her eyes.

Arsenal hesitated. Jade rolled to the side as he released the arrow. She was back up in a flash, claws sheathed, her wakizashi out and whirring forward. Roy blocked the strike with his bow again, and the sword bit into the high caliber wood. He wrenched his bow to the side, hoping to rip the blade out of her hand.

She didn't release the handle, allowing herself to be carried forward. Her other hand went for his nose, curling in a fist. Arsenal caught her by the wrist, and suddenly they were mask to mask.

"What are you doing here?" Roy hissed.

Her eyes were smiling. "Putting on a show, and-" The bow was dropped, suddenly they were fighting hand to hand. "-giving you a lead."

"What?"

"Boss Catron is dirty." Cheshire hissed. "You need-" He ducked a shrieking right hook. "-to check him."

"And why-" A left cross. "-should I trust you?"

There was an accusatory note in her voice. "You did before."

The remark checked him. "We don't have time." He caught her by the wrists.

Her next word she spat at him, obviously afraid they didn't have time. "Then do it _after_."

Their entire exchange had lasted less than thirty seconds; the words had been rushed and hurried. The fight continued around them, a window shattered as an electric stun round blasted through it.

X was dodging all around the room. Freefall and Blackfire were trading strikes that put massive dents in the walls, Bushido and Kyd were still making massive sprays of sparks as they cut at the other.

X suddenly shouted and the room was full of smoke. Yells, and powers lit up the vapor. "Finish the aliens quickly, and come back. I'll need you for this rabbithole." And then Cheshire was gone, dashing through the smoke.

Once it cleared, Arsenal turned to see his team standing at his back. They all looked resigned, and grim.

"We won't be able to chase them, will we?" Liang asked glumly.

"We're due launch to Luna Base in two hours." Arsenal grumbled. "We'll get Kid Flash on this. He can roust up some seniors from the Academy."

" _Kavat_." Liang grumbled. "I could take us to Luna."

"That would put you in bed for a month." Arsenal reminded him. "Let's go back to the tower, we have a lot of preparations to make."

 **Fun Fact, Boss Catron is an actual person. Google him sometime. And FYI, alien war is up next.**


	15. Independent Space

**Sorry for the delay guys, this chapter was** ** _hell_** **. Couldn't figure out how to write it for a while. With that being said, enjoy! And I do not own Teen Titans or Independence Day.**

 **Beast Boy, Luna Base**

The launch hadn't been bad, Gar normally hated them, but he had something more pressing on his mind. Raven had looked white as a sheet when she had walked into the Ops room this morning. She'd had her hood up, but he had good eyes, and he noted with worry that she had been clutching her wrists.

He had tried to talk to her, but she hadn't said much, promising they would talk later. Come nightfall, they still hadn't had the aforementioned talk.

Of course, it wasn't _really_ that late. In reality, the staff had just darkened the corridors where the Titan teams were staying. In any other time, all the teams together in one place usually meant they were having their once in a year Titan Party, but in this case, their meeting was much more grim. Even if everyone had been glad to see Hot Spot up and moving.

This place reminded Beast Boy of a cage. All the windows had been blacked out or replaced with fluid images of the stars to give the impression of night, but he knew all too well where they were. He had been dreading this day. Sure, they'd fought aliens before, but that was always one ship, one room of guards. Now there were twelve ships descending on the Earth, preparing to wipe them all out.

It was, kind of, why he was wandering the corridors with the time nearing midnight. He hadn't been able to sleep one bit. Beast Boy's stomach was a mix of impatience and nausea. He had no doubt they would win, but what would they lose in return? It seemed that every single conflict lately had a price tag attached.

Gar passed Raven's room, and gave it a long look that he hoped wasn't too sappy. He wished he could be in there with her. He knew that would be moving a bit fast, they had only been dating for a couple of weeks.

"Gar?" He nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned to find Rae a couple of steps behind him, her cowl raised, dressed in a dark tee and sweats. His reaction had elicited a small smile. "Why are you still awake?"

"I couldn't sleep." Beast Boy said truthfully. "What about you?"

She gripped her wrists again. "The same reason."

They stood silently for a moment. The worry returned. "The mark is back, isn't it?" He asked softly.

Her expression was completely impassive. "Yes."

Beast Boy fished for what to say. "Let's go to the A2 turret."

She blanked. "Why?" The A2 was a viewpoint of the Moon's 'west' side, or was it the east side?

"We should talk." He reminded her. "I mean, if you feel like you need to."

"Fine." Raven cracked enough to give him a small smile. "I- did promise we would."

Beast Boy offered his arm, and she looped hers through. They walked arm in arm down the passageway, enjoying the other's presence. Just being next to her was like settling into a comfortable chair, warm and at ease, even when the villains loomed.

"Just so you know, Baltimore won last night." Gar remarked.

"I _told_ you, I don't care about football." Raven grumbled.

"Then why are you wearing the shirt I got you?"

She glanced down; her cloak had drifted apart to reveal the raven logo set against the black fabric. "I like the artwork." She admitted.

"Uh huh."

"You're an idiot."

"And yet you chose to date me."

She smiled, and looked upwards to the stars as they entered the A2. He followed her gaze, musing over the dark canopy. When Gar looked back down, he found Rae staring at him, eyes shining in the dull light.

"What?"

Raven continued her unrelenting stare. "You actually look like you're thinking."

"Told you I have a brain."

She gave him a rather piercing look. "What's really keeping you awake? You usually sleep fine."

The dream came back to him immediately. His knees had been on rough stone as he crouched before a familiar plaque, but instead of Terra, it was Raven's named etched into the granite. When Beast Boy had wrenched his eyes upwards he had seen her, frozen in the rock, and mouth twisting in a scream.

Garfield shook his head violently like a dog shaking water, but Rae had already seen it. She had a nifty perch in his brain by her hand on his. "Raven, the people I care about, they-." He started, but she stopped him.

"I _know_ Gar." She whispered, two pale fingers on his lips. "I won't allow that to pass."

It hit him again. Raven really did know. She knew all the pain he did. The loss, the fear of losing more, and the grief they both carried on their shoulders.

 _God, I love you_. As soon as it echoed through his head, Raven's eyes widened, and Beast Boy felt like hitting his head on a wall. It was too soon for that kind of thing right?

Raven opened her mouth to say something, but gasped hoarsely instead, like she had tried to swallow her words. Red light gleamed from her wrists, throwing her face into a shadowy contrast. Beast Boy stepped forward as she stepped back. Rae's gaze snapped from the harsh light to his face, fear and anger clear in her eyes.

"Hey, it's alright." He soothed. Gar reached for her wrist, catching her by the hand as she tried to withdraw it behind her cloak. Timidly and gently, he ran his thumb over the glowing red mark, casting shadows on both their faces. She had flinched, then stilled. "We can take him."

Raven was leaning into him. For a moment, they stood there, and then Rae raised her head. Her voice was different, and it sent chills washing up his spine. "I know."

The marks faded, sending them into darkness yet again.

"Just do me a favor." He was stroking her hair. When had his hand risen? "Don't die this time."

"I won't." A pause. "He's weak."

"What do you mean?"

"I should have realized it in Iceland." Raven murmured, her forehead brushing his brow. "Trigon is weak, what we did to him has made him frail. It's why he was so desperate in Iceland, it's why the marks aren't as bright _now_." She was shivering with excitement. "If we defeat him one more time-"

"Then he'll be finished." Gar concluded, feeling a smile cross his lips.

Raven took a deep breath, whispered her mantra, and grinned at him in the dark. "Yes, and he won't ever come back."

"Well that's something to celebrate."

"Do _me_ a favor."

"Name it."

"I don't want to lose-"

He hushed her. "You can count on it."

Their lips came together as soon as the last syllable passed his lips. It was urgent, it was needy, she was pressed hard against him, and he was pushing back, feeling something he couldn't put a word to. On impulse, Gar's hand dropped to her waist, quickly sliding even lower. Rae gasped, a deep, rolling growl shuddering from her throat, one that sounded eerily familiar.

She pulled away, nearly panting, and muttered her mantra at _least_ three times. Her head was lowered, fingers still knitted in his shirt. After a moment more, she turned on her heel, tugging him forward. "Come on." She began walking back down the hallway.

"Uh, where are we going?" Beast Boy still felt a bit frazzled. He had expected a light peck on her nose, not borderline foreplay.

"My room." She said firmly.

His brain kicked into overdrive. "Is this-? I mean, uh, that's-?"

Rae gave him a devilish smile. "Get a grip Gar, I don't mean like that."

"So, pillow border?"

"Pillow border."

Beast Boy shook his head in wonder as she punched in the code to her room, and nearly pulled him inside when it opened. On the eve of one of their biggest battles, he was sharing a bed with Raven.

These aliens were going to have to invade again.

 **Luna Base**

The Titans were all in their respective berths, ships being primed and ready. Friends talked quietly, slowly, savoring every minute. In the shadows, couples shared last minute kisses and whispers.

It was crunch time. The Micoran armada was due in a matter of hours. The Earth fleet was up and ready, waiting for their wildcard auxiliaries to arrive. The JL was quiet, but everyone knew their _Javelin-7_ was revving its engines.

In the command room, the Luna base commander keyed in his mike, putting in an address to both the Alliance fleet and all prepping in the base itself.

"Good morning." Around the base, Titans and Leaguers stilled. On the ships, the marines became silent. "I think a speech is needed for this sort of event, and I'm no good at 'em, so I'll just give you this."

Everyone stopped in confusion, looking up at the speakers curiously. They crackled, and the voice of Bill Pullman came through the speakers. "In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind."

Troia had her arms round Prysm's and Argent's shoulders, the women three watching the speakers. Hot Spot and Risk sat close on boxes, the speech distracting them from talk.

"…Mankind- that word should have new meaning for all of us today, we can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore."

Dice looked up from her tinkering with her beloved _Difolomew_ , East's ship. Liang ghosted to her side. Bushido and Freefall exchanged a nod, and Arsenal thought of Cheshire.

"We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it's faith that today is the fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our _freedom_."

Starfire's eyes began to glow. Nightwing stood by her side, sharpening his rangs. Raven was gazing at the speaker, rapt. Beast Boy was smiling, and mouthing the speech as it went along. Cy was in between the East and Central berths with Bee.

"-Not from tyranny, oppression, or _persecution_ , but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist."

Mayley accepted a tissue from Quickdraw, wiping at her eyes, and then glaring at him, daring for a smartass remark. He merely put a warm hand on her shoulder. Kilowat and Bravo shared a glance, and nodded in seeming understanding.

"And should we win the day, the fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday-"

Static and Mechmana were close, their foreheads touching. Kole leaned on a sitting Gnark, her arm cast on him tightly. Typhoon and Wisp were holding hands tightly, staring up at the speaker.

"-But as the day when the world declared with one voice _we will not go quietly into the night_ , _we will not vanish without a fight_ -"

All the Titans drew closer, their backs stiffened, their fists clenched. Unspoken promises coming to their lips, put into words by the voice from the speakers.

"-We're going to _live_ on, we're going to _survive_. Today, we celebrate our _Independence Day_."

All the Titans performed their last team rituals, huddles, clasped hands, and said a few more words, simple, heartfelt things. And walked to their ships, heads high.

Sure, it wasn't the fourth of July, and sure, life wasn't a movie like _Independence Day,_ but the point remained.

It was go time.

 **Grid Sector X-9, 295,000 Miles from Luna**

"All hail."

" _Prometheus_ and the fleet are go. Carriers _Midway_ and _Actium_ are primed and ready for the fight. Metahumans are on our flank."

"Titan Fleet is ready, all five ships are in the air."

" _Javelin_ is armed and able."

" _Loda_ Liang, we still have no Lakonian ships on our scopes. Can we get an ETA?"

"I am afraid not Admiral. The last positive ping I received from the _Revenant_ task force was a sol ago."

"Alright, then we're on our own." Admiral Ironsides grunted. "League, Titans, you wont have much time to move once the Micorans arrive. We'll screen them, play some cat and mouse. You move in on their flanks once we do, and whatever you do, you gotta do it _fast_. We aren't going to last long against their fleet."

"We hear you Admiral. The 1st won't have to hold for long, we have a plan. JL Actual, are you in position?" Nightwing said.

"We're ready, waiting for battle." Diana replied.

"Roger. All Titan Teams, call in."

"East is ready." Bumblebee affirmed.

"West is ready on the flank." Arsenal reported.

"South is armed and able." Troia answered.

"North is set." Static said.

"Everybody know the plan?" Cyborg asked.

"Relax _sparky_ , we got this." Bee teased. Cyborg was about to reply, but-.

The Micorans arrived.

The sensors on Luna and in every single Earth-linked ship went insane, beeping as their instruments were nearly overloaded with the raw amount of data. The twelve capital ships were arrayed in a crescent, staggered in all directions so as to cover the other's flanks.

It would also allow any ship to quickly turn to fire on its fellow.

The support ships, ranging from frigates 275 meters long, to faster "zippers" that only were 100 meters long. These were no trouble. The Earth Fleet had three capital class, the Dreadnought _Prometheus_ and the two carriers _Midway_ and _Actium_. The dreadnought was the center of the fleet, while the lethal fighters of the two carriers would (hopefully) account for most of the support ships.

The Micoran ships paused, likely resting their thrusters from FTL travel, and assessing the scene before them. One could imagine the captains laughing as they surveyed the paltry forces arrayed in front of the planet.

Then the _Prometheus_ and _Javelin_ fired their main batteries. The Micoran sensors had a critical weakness; they simply didn't work after an FTL jump, so when two large slugs hurtled at them, they didn't know it till three of their frigates were reduced to space debris.

The earth fleet then made a move the Micorans never could have expected. They made a small jump directly forward, and made a simultaneous blindfire all the way down the line.

The end result was that the Micoran line was devastated. Three dozen support ships either took critical damage so that they were no longer tactically viable, or were killed, venting atmosphere and drifting as their systems failed. A certain Kryptonian also did his damage, punching engines into scrap metal.

Now the fighters from the carriers were launched, along with hundreds of drones carrying high-caliber torpedoes tipped with miniaturized warheads. They were known as "Hell-Lancers".

They ripped into the front Micoran screen, some even penetrating past it to land hits on the mighty capital ships. Though none of the perpetrators of these strikes lived to tell the tale.

The battle then changed in an instance. As one, all twelve capital ships fired their main batteries as the smaller frigates pushed forward, firing all their available weapons. Their rounds ripped into the Earth Fleet, knocking five of their seven cruisers out of the fight, and landing severe blows to the _Prometheus_. Multiple frigates were torn in two, and the Earth Fleet began to retreat back towards Luna, half their fleet damaged, another quarter out of the fight completely.

In all of this chaos, five strange ships went unnoticed as they closed in on the twelve Micoran capital ships. They came from the underside, two closing on the ships on the flanks, and one orange ship closed on one of the center dreadnoughts, a flagship.

The trap had been set.

 **So yeah, another cliffhanger, curse my name all you like.**


	16. Blood and Iron

**Surprise! I'm not dead! So sorry about the delay, I had some life issues that had to be dealt with. That, and my internet went down,** ** _again_** **, for about a month. And oh yeah, brace yourself for this one, it's a doozy.**

 **Grid Sector X-9**

The Earth fleet continued their desperate scramble back towards the warming laser cannons on Luna as the smaller, fighter sized ships closed on the flanks and flagship of the alien fleet.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" Nightwing asked tersely.

"Be a bit late if we weren't." Arsenal chuckled.

"Save it for later." Nightwing bit back. "We're on the clock. Raven, go."

A black globe suddenly erupted from the starboard side, and extended tendrils to the other pods. In an indiscernible flash, a massive black raven emerged from the small orange ship and dove into the side of the flagship. It passed though wall after wall, until finally Raven's incredible focus gave out. They landed in an isolated corridor not far from the bridge.

"Nice work Raven." Nightwing muttered as he peered around the corridor, finding it empty.

"I'm keyed into their cyber systems." Cyborg said. "I should be able to build a path to the bridge. That's where we can put the hack in."

"Good." Dick said. "Everybody know the plan?"

"Save the Earth, for about the tenth time." Beast Boy chirped, returning from his small expedition down the corridor as a bug.

"Final check. Are all Titan Teams in?" Wonder Woman's feed cut through, making them all jump slightly in surprise.

"All in. JL, your turn." Nightwing replied, his voice curt.

"Got it." Among the Earth fleet, the _Javelin_ blasted its way through two enemy frigates, and made a short jump to land amongst the Micoran capital ships, sending the commanders aboard into a panic. Superman and Red Star streaked from the _Javelins_ shadow, punched through one bridge, and then plunged downwards to gut the ship, pounding its power plant until it ruptured, cracking the ship in half.

The Micoran vessels directed their fire at the _Javelin_ , but the League ship abruptly dived, its powerful engines firing as it plummeted below the path of the enemy munitions.

The Titans felt the ships shuddering as they fired, and they all smiled. It was all going to plan. Cyborg took point as they moved quickly through the corridors, Raven covering them with her magic whenever a group of Micorans hustled down the dim hallways.

"Nice one Rae." Beast Boy murmured as they moved on again for the fifth time.

"Just don't try to steal my cloak again." Raven replied.

Beast Boy snickered.

They reached a corner, only a matter of feet before the bridge. Cyborg primed his cannon and swung around the edge only to find no guards at the door.

Or what should have been the door. The patrol that had just passed had gone through what looked like a blank wall.

"That's different." Raven deadpanned.

"Can you get us in?" Nightwing asked, looking slightly upwards at Cyborg.

Vic nodded. "Might take me a few minutes, but I can think of a faster way." He lifted his glowing cannon.

Nightwing grinned. "I thought the boom was my thing."

Cyborg gestured to the door. "Well then be my guest."

Inside, the Micorans shouted in surprise and shock as the door violently exploded, throwing the guards away. Immediately several began firing on the smoke pouring from the gaping hole, no doubt expecting that their fellows had betrayed them. What they got was very different.

Raven's black shield absorbed all the incoming fire, and then rapidly expanded into a shockwave of magic that royally screwed with the guns of the Micorans. Starfire bolted from the smoke, her eyes blazing green as she fired three separate beams to knock the guards to their backs.

Cyborg had activated both cannons, and fired blasts strong enough to raise hairs on the back of Nightwing's neck as he sprinted forward, cutting a Micorans legs out from underneath him and slamming a forearm into his neck. He leapt onto another, baton electrified and cracking into the alien's collarbone.

Beast Boy roared forward as a rex, bulldozing and bludgeoning, then as a tiger, leaping, clawing, and leaving deep scores in the deck. And as the Micoran captain aimed his powerful rifle at Raven, BB plunged downward onto him as a green whale.

Cyborg and Nightwing ran to the ships main computer as the rest of the team cleaned up, Raven chucking all the incapacitated soldiers into the hallway.

"This had better work." Nightwing said tensely as Cyborg interfaced with the Micorans systems.

"The Runners have never let us down before." Cyborg grunted as he sorted through thousands and thousands of lines of binary.

"They better not start now." Dick grumbled. He flipped his communicator open. "All teams, status report."

"West here." Arsenal grumbled, along with a massive amount of noise.

Nightwing winced and pulled the com away from his ear. "Do you have me on _speaker phone_?"

Arsenal snorted over the sound of battle. "I need both hands for my bow. We ran into some trouble. You guys must have set off an alarm, cause they we- _fuck_ -" There was the sound of shouting and an explosion, but Roy soon chimed back like nothing had happened. "-were really anal about us sneaking around."

"Same here man." Static grunted over the sounds of fighting. "I can't remember a fight as tough as this."

"Stop whining." Troia retorted. "Nightwing, we're almost to the bridge."

"Thanks Miss Star Spangled- _damn_ -" Arsenal growled again. "They're being really stubborn Rob, we might need some help."

 _Shit_. Nightwing cursed. If _Arsenal_ was admitting he needed help, then it had to be bad.

"I can help, as soon as Sparky gets the code working." Bumblebee chimed in. "We're at the bridge of our ship, waiting for a shot."

"Cyborg?" Nightwing asked, looking towards his old friend.

"One more minute, tops." Vic answered, still furiously typing away at the console.

"We're almost there, just hang on everyone." Nightwing said as a horrible thought suddenly struck him. If most of the teams were engaged, why weren't they?

There was an ominous hum from behind, a flash, and a cry of pain.

" _Star_!"

 **Titans West, MV-11**

Arsenal grunted as he ducked to avoid another laser blast, nocking another three arrows as he did so, loosing them as he straightened again. Three more Micorans down, out of what seemed to be a thousand. Liang may have managed to get them to the starboard gallery, but they had only gotten as far as the wide corridors leading up to the bridge before the alarms had gone off and they had been mobbed.

Across from him, Dice suddenly yelped, twisting and flinching like she'd been shot. She gave him a wild-eyed glance, and pawed at the half of her braid that suddenly wasn't there anymore.

This couldn't continue, sooner or later one of the Micorans was going to get lucky. He didn't want to fall back, but he had no choice. They were nearly surrounded. "Titans, retreat!" Arsenal shouted, flicking out a couple of smoke pellets as Dice sent smoke cans clattering across the metal floor to cloud her hallway from Micoran rifle sights.

Behind him, Liang swept a wall of flame across his corridor, and came running to regroup with the team.

"Where's the others?!" Arsenal shouted as they dashed down the one open corridor, Lucy keeping a constant rate of fire on the smoke in case the Micorans got brave.

Liang shook his head. "I do not know! We were separated!"

Roy keyed his mike. "Bushido, Freefall, report!"

All he got was silence.

"I've got their locaters." Dice panted. "Turn left."

Feet pounding the floor, the three members of Titans West took one more left, a right, and then another left. There, they stopped in their tracks.

Bushido and Freefell were on their knees, in front of a mob of Micorans all pointing weapons at them. The sound of laser rifles humming to life let them know the corridor behind them was filled with a firing line as well.

Bushido was stony faced, his back stiff. His face was bloody, and his armor scales were broken in places. Freefall was slumped against him. She looked faint, her grey, metallic skin was pale, and there were cracks and blood on her shoulders and chest. Standing at the head of this little procession was a familiar face.

"Tangyang." Liang spat, shaking with anger.

The Lakonian rebel and killer of kings smiled. "Liang, my old friend, how good it is to see you."

"Enough." Liang growled, flame rippling up and down his arms.

"You won't entertain an old one of the line?" Tangyang pursed his lips, and pushed his sword a bit harder against Bushido's throat, but he didn't flinch.

"Fine." Liang conceded, drawing his sword from over his shoulder. "Release my friends, and let us end this feud."

"Ah, ah." Tangyang cautioned, pressing his sword hard enough to Bushido's throat to draw blood. The rebel's red eyes glared at Dice and Arsenal. "Your friends must drop their weapons."

If they put their weapons on the deck, Tangyang would have the upper hand. He would be able to just kill the lot of them, and Roy refused to take that chance. He locked eyes with Bushido, and nodded ever so slightly. The other man's eyes narrowed. He understood.

"Drop it Dice." Arsenal said in convincing reluctance. "On the count of three, we put our weapons down."

Tangyang was still smiling, like a shark.

"One." Arsenal said as he dropped a smoke at his heels, and was instantly encased in shadowy vapor. Bushido had done the same. Dice pivoted, primed her underslung disk launcher, and fired three into the crowd behind them. The crackle of electricity marked them as taken care of.

Liang had charged into the crowd holding their two teammates as Arsenal threw one of Bushidos spare swords into the smoke, trusting him to know it was coming. There were the sounds of screaming metal and shouts as Liang sliced and Arsenal fired all the arrows he could into the smoke, aiming at whatever targets he could make out.

Suddenly, like a curtain opening to start a show, the smoke was swept away by dark fire. Liang leapt backwards with Bushido, sending the Japanese man to the deck as he stumbled.

As the firing line of Micorans emptied their guns, Liang threw up a shield, doubling over immediately as the laser bolts impacted his barrier. Bushido stood, and there were tears trailing down his face.

Behind the shield of flame Roy could see Freefall. She was on the deck. There was a hole in her chest, and blood made a river across the metal plating.

 **Titans North, MV-2**

Static grunted as he rolled another bolt off his fingertips, watching as another Micoran went down, fried like bacon on a skillet.

 _Man, this is not the time to think about food_.

Mechmana was behind him in her power suit, punching and blasting. When he turned to check on her, she was snapping a Micoran lance in half while kicking another across the bridge.

Central had stopped talking, and the few hails Static had a chance to make weren't responded to. He had a bad feeling roiling in his gut. Things had been going well for them until they had reached the bridge. What kind of bad guys put all of their henchmen in the final room?

Gnark and Kole were doing their best impressions of a wrecking ball all across the bridge. Typhoon and Wisp were trying their hardest to make a bottleneck in the door the Micorans were issuing from, by making a wall of ice sculptures.

Static blasted another soldier away, clearing a path to the main console. "Anne, go!"

Using her suits aux power, Mechmana leapt to the main console and started hammering in commands. And like a switch being flicked, the feed going across his com spiked with noise.

"Bee!" That was Cyborg. "You and Mechmana are going to have to plug the virus in. You should have the data packages with you."

The _plan_ had been that Central would have put their virus in first, and then the other teams would have followed suit, so that it looked as if a faction of the invading forces was betraying the coalition as a whole.

"What happened?" Bumblebee demanded.

"A big laser did. Starfire got roughed up." Cyborg answered back with a lot of static. "We had to run to another ship."

Mechmana echoed through his com. "I'm plugging mine in. Bee if you need any help let me know."

"I've got it."

Static ran to Mana, hitting a Micoran with a bolt so strong that it sent him through the floor, and put his back against hers. If any Micoran wanted to get to her, they'd have to go through him.

Across the room, Typhoon made a massive fist of water, and brought it smashing down on the knot of Micorans trying to break through the doors. Water frothed and flowed. Wisp clenched her fists, and froze the entryway solid.

Static breathed, looking around the room. All the Micorans were on the floor, down for the count. Kole went back to her normal shape, and looked anxiously towards Mechmana as she quickly typed in commands, and then paused.

"The virus is in." Mana's voice echoed through their coms as they all sighed in relief. "Bee, how you doing with it?"

"Fine, I'm past the firewall." Bumblebee replied tersely. "I'm putting it through."

For a few seconds, Static could sense his entire team holding their breath. It was only released when Bee crowed, "I'm in!"

"Now what?" Mana demanded. "We can't have that much time left."

"Follow the plan." Nightwing chipped in. His voice sounded strained. "All teams, check."

"Mate." Static answered automatically. "We're all clear."

"Mate." Bee said. "All clear."

"Mate." Troia sounded strained. "We have been halted, and need support."

"We're coming your way." Nightwing replied, voice scratching as the signal faltered. "West, report?"

There was silence.

"West." Nightwing repeated, his voice was louder, more urgent. "Report."

Again, there was silence, Static felt something gnawing at his gut. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

"Mate." Arsenal finally came through, but his voice sounded rough and hollow. "Titan down."

Static inhaled so hard it hurt. Nightwing burst back onto the comm after a moment of stunned silence. "Sit tight Arsenal, help is coming."

A TD was only called when a Titan was dead or dying. They'd lost another one. Static called to mind every face in Titans West. Which one of them had gone down?

The ship lurched beneath his feet as Mana tinkered with the controls, pointing the main gun at the lead Micoran ship. "Ready, and…" The ship shuddered as the main battery charged. "Fire." The floor shuddered. Static stepped close to his girlfriend, watching the monitor over her shoulder. Meaningless symbols started scrawling across the screen, and Mechmana whooped in delight. "A hit! Charging up for another!"

"Two more shots and we leave!" Static yelled to his team. "We've almost won!"

An ominous humming suddenly cut off their cheering, and the line of ice sculptures began to glow red. His team began to move, Wisp channeling her power into the ice as Typhoon layered on more water. Gnarkk and Kole dashed forward, only to be thrown back as the line of ice exploded, and a bright red flash filled the room.

The Micorans flooded in, but Static could only hear Kole's mournful cry. " _Gnarkk_!"

 **FYI, Tangyang is the fugitive Liang was tracking when he met Titans West.**


	17. Graviora Manent

**So... I really have no excuse for this long of a wait. Enjoy! This is one of the shorter chapters I've written for this story, but it felt appropriate to cut it at the point I did.**

 **Grid Sector X-9**

The battle raged on. Five of the Micoran capital ships were knocked out of the fight, and seven remained. Superman had been driven off by Kryptonite torpedoes, Red Star fought alongside the Earth Fleet, and the Javelin had been forced to retire to Luna for repairs after being hit eleven times by mass driver shots.

Aboard one of the ships, Titans West was fighting for their lives. They had confronted Tangyang in a T shaped intersection, and while it was defensible in a way, it also trapped them as long as their enemies kept pouring down all three corridors.

Liang was crossing his sword against Tangyang, sending long licks of white and black flame rippling across the metal deck. Behind him, Bushido slashed and cut, a tornado of metal and blood. Dice was in a corner, alternating her fire down whichever of the three hallways demanded her rifle's bark.

Arsenal nocked three more arrows, and let them fly, sending Micoran bodies to the deck. He was lodged in the opposite corner of Dice's own, his body pressed hard against the metal. Arsenal nocked more arrows, and spun, sighting and releasing in the same instant. The heavy _thud_ of bodies hitting the floor was music to his ears.

Tangyang shouted and blew Liang backwards with a wide blast of flame. Roy nocked an arrow and sent it flying at him. The rebel of Lakonia incinerated it, then another, and another.

Arsenal drew his next arrow back, and as the tip shone red, he saw Liang jackknife to his feet. When he released, Liang was ready. As Tangyang went to incinerate the arrow, Liang gave it a spark.

The explosion blasted Tangyang back against the wall, a slice of flame from Liang broke his defenses, and their alien teammate grabbed him by the collar. There was a moment of pause before Liang yanked down, going to his knees as he slammed Tangyang to the deck face-first, pacifying the Rebel of Lakonia with a metal facial.

Roy felt like cheering, but a Micoran round passed by so close to his gut that all the air left his body. The world got fuzzy, the floor turned into a gray smear and the shouting faded to a buzz. Then there was the distant call of a horn, and everything went- black?

He regained his senses to find that Central had come to their rescue. Raven had casted a black bubble over them as Nightwing, Cyborg, and Beast Boy each took a corridor, driving the Micorans back with a flurry of attacks. Starfire remained in the center, firing bolts down whatever corridor needed them. Arsenal noticed that her armor was in tatters at her back, and her orange skin was red and blistered.

At this new onslaught, the Micorans finally had enough. They started to falter, taking steps backwards down the hallway as they fired.

Suddenly, the ship lurched, sending everyone on their feet to the floor. The metal round them groaned and shuddered, and the klaxons and lights that had been previously shrieking and flashing ceased.

The darkness was only marred by the shouts and the slapping of feet as the Micorans fled down the corridor, shouting in their own language. The Titans fallen stood-

With one exception. Arsenal took the steps one at a time, the weight settling itself hard on his back. When he knelt beside Bushido, he felt it was a wonder his knees did not dent the gray metal, now colored red with blood. Dimly, he registered the rest of the Titans behind him, Liang sinking to his knees and weeping openly.

Bushido gently reached out and closed Freefall's eyes; his hand lingered on her cheek.

Liang entered Roy's frame of vision, his cloak off his shoulders and in his hands. Their alien friend gently draped his beloved cloak over Freefall, covering the ghastly wound in her chest, but leaving her face exposed. It struck Roy then. They had never known her real name.

"Guys." Cyborg said, breaking the spell. "We need to leave. This ship isn't going to stick around for much longer."

As if to confirm, the ship shuddered again, and an ominous shrieking of metal on metal came from farther down the corridor.

"Herald." Arsenal started, going to his feet. "Open a portal to our berth in Luna Base, please."

"Roy," Nightwing warned. "North and South have called for help. We can't abandon them."

"I'm not leaving her body here Dick." Arsenal said flatly, glaring into the other man's mask. "Bushido, stay with her, make sure she's treated like a Titan. Dice and Liang, you're with me."

Herald had said nothing, his expression like marble. He blew his horn.

Arsenal had been with Herald when the tower in Reykjavik exploded. The leader of Titans North had fallen to his knees then, a tree felled by a cruel axe. The portal opened, and their berth became visible. Bushido noiselessly went forward, the body of their fallen teammate still wrapped in gray. He stepped through, and Herald blew another blast.

As the portal formed, a thought occurred to Arsenal, and he turned his head towards Liang. "Where is…?"

His Lakonian friend shook his head, his mouth a firm line. Tangyang had escaped?

But when Liang hefted his sword, Roy noted that it was streaked with dark blue blood, all the way to the hilt.

Lakonian blood.

In front of them, the portal formed. The sounds of fighting, screams, and raw electric roars met them. Arsenal's questions would have to wait.

 **Nightwing, Luna Base**

They'd arrived to find Titans North in the same position they'd found Titans South, fighting for their lives, with a member already gone, lying on a gray floor stained red.

With all of their fighting skill, they had cleared the room. Just in time for the Herald to create a doorway back into Luna Base as the JL aided Titans South. Utilizing their "Quicksuits", temporary breathing and shielding apparatuses, they had made it to the kinda-sorta repaired _Javelin_ with little trouble.

It had been in the nick of time. Titans North's tampering had done the trick. It had split the Micoran fleet in half, and resulted in three more of their capital ships being disabled. At around the same time, the Lakonian task force had entered the solar system. It was on the completely wrong side, of course, but its presence convinced the Micorans that they now had a losing hand, prompting them to flee.

Dick stood on a catwalk centered above and between all the berths. He had a perfect, ugly view of North and South huddled around two caskets, both with blankets emblazoned with the logo of the Titans draped over them.

Nightwing had already gone to visit Starfire. She was resting, exhausted from having taken such a blow. His gaze found Raven and Beast Boy, paying their respects and comforting the two devastated teams. If not for Raven, who had blocked much of the laser with one of her barriers, Starfire wouldn't have survived.

Dick sighed, resting on the bannister. He had nearly lost her, his wife, the love of his life, the one he hoped would be the mother of his children. He was so tired.

"They're towing the alien ships to within a few sectors of Luna." Batman said idly as he ghosted from the shadows.

Nightwing didn't even twitch. He was far too used to his mentor appearing where he wasn't supposed. "Great."

"This is important Dick." Bruce chided. "We need to keep a close eye on who exactly gets these ships."

For a moment, Nightwing didn't reply. Then he spoke. "Have you ever thought of retiring?"

"You think I'm that old?"

"You're nowhere near as old as I feel." Nightwing grit his teeth. Bruce was always so tedious.

Bats paused, then peered at Nightwing as if he was a case to crack. "And what makes you say that?"

"I received a message from groundside. The Brotherhood attacked our tower back in Jump. Flamebird and the others from the academy managed to fight them off, but-" Nightwing balanced the next words on his tongue as they put a bad taste there. "One of them died. His name was Chief." Batman said nothing. Dick turned to him. "I'm tired. That's eleven total now. Eleven Titans dead when there should be _none_." Nightwing clenched his fists, and slammed one onto the bannister.

"It's a dangerous job, being a hero." Bruce said simply.

Dick turned to him. "That's it? That's all you have to say? Titans are _dying_ Bruce, and I can't stop it!"

Bats remained impassive. "And how many would be in graves if not for you and your team Dick? It would be more than eleven, I can assure you."

Nightwing released another long-winded sigh. "Do you think I should retire?"

"Who would take your place?"

"Arsenal, Troia, any of the team leaders."

"Arsenal is wavering in being a Titan at all Dick, Troia is better, but she lacks confidence after what happened to her team in Australia. Static is too inexperienced, Bumblebee is too brash. None of them could take your position." Batman said, casually listing off each team leader as if he could write their biographies. "However, there is one thing you could do."

"What would that be?"

"Stop leading the Titans, and start guiding them."

"Yeah, thanks, that clears it up completely."

Batman frowned. "Give each team leader more jurisdiction, more responsibility. If there is a crisis, let them make the call. If things go wrong, you can come in with the Herald."

Nightwing stared at the caskets. "You think that'll prevent things like this?"

"'This' was one of the greatest threats the earth has ever seen. This is an exception."

"We're honored."

"Dick, if we hadn't been here to stop this-"

"I know. I just wish that we didn't need caskets."

Batman went to stand beside him. "Robin, they _chose_ to be Titans, they _chose_ to be like you, like your team. If you ever think of retiring again, I suggest you give some thought as to why they made that choice."

With that, his mentor and adopted father walked away. Nightwing remained leaning against the bannister, watching as Kole rested her head on the casket of her friend, her tears falling onto his shroud. He vaulted over the bannister, landing lightly, and started walking towards the caskets.

He had to pay his respects, after all.


End file.
